Coming Home
by hbcooper
Summary: Rogue and Wolverine volunteer to help Cannonball with security at a Lila Cheney concert, but get more than they bargained for when the two are transported to an untamed alien world on the other side of the galaxy. With Sam and Lila seriously injured, can the X-Men put aside their differences in time to rescue their friends? Rogan.
1. Chapter 1

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

Author's note: This story is told from three different POVs and will flip between their perspectives. I decided to write the characters using minimal accents; figured the reader can 'hear' each character's voice plainly enough in their heads without my help.

The timeline starts off-camera during the first issues of Uncanny Avengers, volume 1, then diverges sharply from there. For mature audiences only due to language, violence, and sexual situations. I will flag the naughtier chapters, but just to be safe the whole story gets an 'M' rating.

**Rogue**

"You can't wear those boots, darlin'."

I turned and found Logan leaning against my doorframe, cleaned up real nice for him in his best jeans and flannel shirt, leather jacket smoothed over the top. His comforting cologne of cigar smoke and motor oil pleasantly filled my nostrils. I smirked and stretched out one leg, proudly showing off my new high-heeled black booties.

"And why not, sugar? Don't think they go with the dress?" I put my hands on my hips and posed and pouted like a runway model, delightedly watching as the big, bad Wolverine squirmed. Uncomfortable right up to his eyebrows, my friend's stare said equal parts older brother and jealous boyfriend. That sort of tension had always made our relationship what Cosmopolitan would call 'complicated', but no matter what comment was percolating in the back of his thick skull, I knew my outfit was just the right amount of class and trash. The black leggings and short flared burgundy dress hardly qualified as indecent, though the front of the dress dipped dangerously low, the scoop neck and thin straps showing off a good amount of cleavage. I looked hot, but Logan always seemed to give me a funny look when I was dressed hot, like it was easier for him not to be reminded I was a woman.

He rolled his eyes at my antics. "Rogue, ain't about the dress and you know it. We're going to this damn concert as undercover bodyguards, not civilians. Means you've got to be ready to move."

I stuck my tongue out at him, angrily kicking off my pretty new boots. "Spoilsport." I dropped to my knees and rummaged under my bed for my trusty Doc Martens. Even he couldn't object to those: rubber soles, sturdy, they were practically army issue. I triumphantly pulled out the utilitarian boots to shake at him for his approval, but when I looked up he darted his eyes away from me in a move that in a lesser man could have been construed as embarrassed. Looking back down, I saw just how much cleavage happened to be spilling over the top of my dress, and laughed wickedly to myself as I plopped onto the bed to grudgingly pull on the less sexy footwear. On second thought, maybe our relationship wasn't really that complicated after all. I stomped to the ground when I had the boots tied, considerably shorter.

"Better?" I asked and did a little twirl.

"Always wear comfortable shoes," he scowled. I grabbed my own leather jacket and a cross-body purse, following him into the hall. "You'll thank me."

I checked my purse and pockets for the essentials as we headed through the Avengers' mansion. Lip balm, sunglasses, hair tie, cell phone, ID, all a girl needed for a night on the town. "Is Sam riding with us?" I asked and shouldered into my jacket, slinging the bag into position across my hip.

Logan grunted, his favorite form of communication. "Are you kidding? Lila Cheney in town? Sam's been up her ass since she rolled into Earth and tracked us down."

"Let's hope not literally, sugar." That crack actually got the hint of a smile from him. Praise indeed. I knew Logan wasn't a fan of Lila's music, but fan or not it made me happy that an intergalactic rock star like her still cared for Sam Guthrie, some poor kid from coal-mining-Kentucky. "You think there's real trouble or is Lila just being cautious?" We reached the garage and Logan hit unlock on his key fob. The lights of a shiny black sports car flashed. Quite a change from the greasy, grimy garage at Xavier's school and Saturday's spent working on Logan's broken down jeep, or flying in the wind on the back of his Harley. Sometimes I sorely missed the old days.

"Could be trouble. Last I knew she was on the government's radar as a potential mutant terrorist, even though we both know that's bullshit. Bottom line, she's high profile, which makes her a target. She may be playing it safe, but she's spooked enough to ask for our help."

I climbed in and buckled my seatbelt. The engine purred and Logan eased the car out of the crowded team garage. "We did such a bang-up job on security the last time she called us…" I muttered under my breath. Logan gave me 'the look', ice on steel that would freeze your insides, out of the corner of his eye. I crossed my arms in a huff and slouched down into the slowly warming leather seat, biting my tongue against the smart-ass remark that threatened to bubble out of my mouth. He could be pissy all he wanted, but the truth hurt. Last time Lila played Central Park, she had recruited the X-Men for help and Professor X had nearly gotten assassinated while preaching to the crowd about racial harmony and tolerance. Logan's grip on the steering wheel told me I had read his mind.

**Logan**

Small venue, but still twenty-five hundred capacity. Too many damn people. Would have felt better to come with a whole squad, but Lila had made it clear she ain't comfortable using Avengers. Most of Storm's outfit were away on a mission when I called the school for more bodies, so we had to make do with what we had. Rogue and I muscled our way through the crowd. Hated places like this, the lights and noises messed with my enhanced senses, making it real hard to do my job. This was gonna go south real fast if something happened, we'd be pinned in a crowd of panicky civilians with no room to maneuver.

Rogue wrangled our backstage passes from the will call station. "Let's get to the stage, find Sam and Lila," she murmured, pulling her phone out to text Guthrie and let him know we were here. I nodded, and she grabbed my arm, yanking me through the writhing mass of people that to my nose was 300 different kinds of body spray plastered over human sweat.

The security guards were ready to give us trouble until Rogue flashed the pass dangling in between her breasts. We wandered backstage, and I tagged Guthrie's scent front and center, as well as Lila's, though not as strong. Girl must have been in her dressing room. Tall, blonde, and gangly, Sam stood a good head above the throng of leather clad groupies packing the backstage area. He waved and wove his way through to come stand next to us. The kid tried and failed to hide the disappointment on his face.

"Just you two?" he asked.

I crossed my arms and glared at him. "Everybody else is on a mission. If Cheney had given us a little more notice or wasn't so damn stubborn that it had to be X-Men only…"

Rogue poked me in the ribs with her finger. She smiled sympathetically at Sam and patted his arm. "We'll make do, sugar. Where's Lila?"

The hayseed's face flushed from his neck to his ears. Damn kid reeked like sex. "Um, in her dressing room…relaxing before her show." Rogue snickered next to me.

"Cool it," I hissed at her. I rubbed my hand across my jaw. Jesus, kid, on a mission? I'd bust his chops later. "How long until she goes onstage?" I asked.

Guthrie pulled his phone out of his back pocket to check the time. Dammit, I missed watches on people. Phones annoyed the hell out of me, could hear each one's little-high pitched whine filling up the background noise. "Warm-up act has, like, half hour set left? Then she'll probably go on fifteen, twenty minutes later."

I nodded. Gave Rogue and me a little time to sweep through the crowd, look for anything suspicious. "You check over the place before the crowd came in like I told you?"

Sam straightened up, all business. "Yes sir, outside the building as well. Got real friendly with all of the security guards." Good boy. At least he listened sometimes.

"Stay backstage with Lila, we'll be back before the warm-up act is done." Rogue and I turned to leave, but he stopped us.

"Here, Anna," he said and held out a hand to Rogue. "Borrow a little bit just in case?" Rogue frowned. Since she lost the flight and super-strength she had retained from Carol Danvers all those years back, I knew she had been feeling outmuscled in most of our fights. She hated using her mutant power to borrow everybody else's just to get her job done, and though she didn't say anything, I could tell it made her feel like she was just leeching off of her teammates, though there was no damn reason she should feel that way. Still, girl was smart. If this turned into a fight, she could use a little bit of Guthrie's Cannonball power. She smiled tightly and took his hand.

"Thanks, sugar," she said and we left the backstage area. I stopped her before we stepped into the crowd and, even though I knew it was guaranteed to piss her off, I snaked an arm around her small waist and leaned my forehead against hers.

"Take some of mine, too, darlin'. Don't give me no sass, just do it. Don't want you hurt if I can help it." I tried not to notice how damn good she smelled; fresh air compared to the hundreds of bath and bodywork's rejects packed around us. "Be useful to have two animals like us sniffing out this place."

She furrowed her brow against mine. "Yeah. That's me. Useful." Her tone was slightly bitter and she wouldn't look at me, but I saw her swallow hard and felt the pull of her power. She used to knock anyone she touched flesh to flesh out on their ass, but now her power was more like a trickle of water across your skin. I let it drop for now, but we'd talk later about her attitude.

"Split up. Stay out of trouble, text me if something's funny. Be back here in a half-hour." Her nostrils flared and I saw her pupils dilate as my heightened senses rushed over her. She squared her jaw and set off through the crowd.

**Sam**

"Can you zip me up?"

I pulled myself out of my state of bliss and caught Lila's expectant gaze over her shoulder. I scrambled to my feet and raked my eyes up her smooth, bare back, visible between the folds of fabric. I slid the zipper up slowly, but just couldn't help myself, sliding it right back down where it came from. I kissed her soft skin, lookin' for an instant replay.

"Sam," she whined and leaned her head on mine. "_Up_. Zip me _up_."

"Oh," I exhaled slowly, sending goose bumps along her arms. "My mistake." I moved my kisses to her shoulder blades.

"Sam." Her tone turned to more of a warning. "I've still got my vocal warm-ups to do." I zipped up the black sparkly dress, trying hard not to pout. I'd forgotten how damned dedicated she could be to her music; 'the show must go on' was more than just her personal motto. She stood in front of the mirror and shimmied the dress into place. I was more than a little disappointed we couldn't sneak one more round in, and she caught the look on my face before I could hide it. She turned around and cupped my chin in her hands.

"Between sets, my break is twenty minutes. Think you can get it done that quickly?" I smiled wolfishly and pressed my body forward, pushing her into the dressing room table.

"You're goddamned right I can." I kissed her a little too strong and she pulled her face back.

"All right, Guthrie. Down boy." She pushed on my chest, then ran her hand down my cheek. "It's so good to see you. You have no idea how much I needed this, to see my friends, to see you. Thank you for coming when I called."

I smiled solemnly and put my hands on her waist. "I'll always be here when you call. That'll never change."

She laughed. "That's about the only thing that hasn't changed." She slapped her hand against my chest playfully. "The Avengers? Are you frikkin' kidding me?" My face flushed involuntarily, causing her to laugh even harder. "Playing in the big leagues now, boy." She untangled herself from my arms and pulled out the suitcase she called her cosmetics bag. I flopped back down onto the dressing room's couch, trying not to think of how many other people over the years had humped on it besides us.

"I'm proud of you, Sam. I am…" I heard a 'but' in her tone and braced myself. "I was just surprised, especially after what you told me happened with the Avengers and…Charles."

Ah, there it was. Her mistrust of anything and everything Avengers happened to be Xavier related; Lila had always had a soft spot for the Professor. The Avengers weren't exactly culpable in the death of Charles Xavier, but they sure as hell weren't helpful. Dammit, I shouldn't have to defend a decision to join Earth's mightiest heroes. I loved being an X-Man, but fighting human hatred with a dream ain't exactly the easiest thing in the world. "Well, when Captain America calls your cell phone…" I held my hands wide and raised my eyebrows expectantly.

She froze in the middle of applying mascara to her already dark lashes. "I see. A little star-struck, was that it? Didn't take you as a flash over substance kind of guy." Her voice was almost cold.

I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. "You got a problem with the choices I'm making here, Lila?"

She bit her lip and caught my hardened eyes in the mirror. "It's your life," she said quietly. "Like I said, I'm just surprised. The X-Men are your family, Sam."

I swallowed hard and chewed on my response, really not wanting to ruin our short time together arguing, especially when she had chosen to stay far, far away from the mutant-human conflict when she could have made a difference. I let out a deep breath. "I have a chance to make progress, Lila. To make a real difference instead of just fighting for survival. You say the X-Men are my family? Damn right they are, but maybe I'm sick of watching my family die."

My phone buzzed and I pulled it from my pocket. "Another text from Rogue. She and Wolverine are probably done with their security sweep." I frowned at the screen. "I wish you would have let me rustle up a few more bodies on this. Especially after Roberto cancelled on me…" My teammate Roberto Da Costa was usually a big fan of Lila's, but he couldn't make it tonight. Busy, he had said. Busy my ass. He better have been on a real honest to god mission instead of watching the finale to 'Dancing with the Stars' or I would kill him.

She stood and smoothed her dress and hair. "Sorry, family only for me. I don't know your Avengers and, I'm sorry, but I don't trust them."

I tried not to slam her door on the way out.

**Rogue**

Everyone smelled like dead flowers soaked in formaldehyde. How the hell did Logan deal with the stink of the unwashed masses every day? I wanted nothing more than to pop the bone claws that itched in my forearms and berserker my way through the throng of bottle blondes and spray tans in my way. I somehow managed to restrain myself. I got a few appreciative nods and caught the spike in pheromones as I walked around the perimeter of the theatre. Logan was right, this place was lousy to cover. Big stage, lots of lights that obscured the crowd of people dancing. A walkway ringed the top, six different entrances and exits with any one of them getting a clear shot at the stage. I paused and leaned over the railing, watching a few seconds of the horrible damn warm-up.

If she was so worried about her safety, why hadn't Lila cancelled the show? I was sure she could have gotten plenty of gigs in other quadrants of the galaxy, places where people weren't trying to gun down anybody that stuck their neck out as a mutant. Why had she risked her safety to come back to Earth? I stepped back and put my hands on my hips. All this had better not have been for a Sam Guthrie booty call or I'd kick his ass.

"Cheney, nothing but a goddamned mutie bitch."

My borrowed enhanced hearing snapped at the voice, followed the sound. I sniffed furiously along the walkway, catching the scent of fear and adrenaline, let it lead me to two men in heated conversation in one of the bathrooms. Their angry self-righteous stink practically bounced off of the filthy stall doors. Just the two of them, they must have scared everyone else out of the bathroom. I leaned my back flat against the wall, staying hidden. I pulled my phone from my jacket pocket and zipped a text to Logan and Sam. _Maybe trouble. Get 2 LC._ They could guard Lila, I'd handle these douches myself.

"It's gonna be epic, man. They'll remember our names forever, martyrs to the cause." My stomach flipped. "The cameras are set up, right? This is going on live feed, on YouTube, everybody'll see that mutie slut get what she deserves."

Oh, shit. I didn't need to hear any more of their plan, not really. I had other ways of getting information from them, though the thought of those pieces of shit floating though my subconscious made me sick. Unfortunately, for that little plan to work I had to get close to them first, close enough to touch. I breathed deep and pushed my boobs up in my bra, smoothing my hair. I sauntered into the bathroom hips first, halting the two saviors of humanity in their conversation. My smile was low and sultry.

"Well, well," I purred, slinking towards them. "Room for one more in here, gentlemen?" One of the guys - brown hair, tall, with a goatee - looked me up and down like he had just won the lottery. Logan's nose told me he about came in his pants just at the sight of me. Gross.

The other - shorter, balder - glared at me and puffed his chest out over the growing paunch of coming middle age housed above his beltline. "This is a private conversation," he growled. The animal I borrowed from Logan wanted to growl back and tear open his guts. Instead, I pouted and took another step towards them.

"Now, that is a shame. Sure this is invitation only? I don't mind watching y'all as long as I get to play, too." Baldy practically sputtered in rage. Sure hit that one on the head. If he hated mutants, odds were he was homophobic, too. Most people weren't real selective when it came to intolerance. I pretended to ignore him and ran a finger down the side of Goatee's face instead, pulling his memories as I went. "Can I go first?" I asked him huskily, processing what I skimmed from his mind in the same breath. I'm not as good as a telepath, but, as much as I hated my power, it did come in handy. Goatee didn't really know anything beyond what I had already figured out, he was nothin' but a flunky. Just my luck, Baldy must be the brains of this duo. I sighed and Goatee practically creamed himself again.

Had to finish this. I reached out faster than lightning and slapped my hands onto their faces, pulling so hard with my power it knocked them flat out on the ground. I was only vaguely aware of their bodies dropping to the floor like dead weights as I stood over their still forms, holding my hands in the air where their faces had been. Their memories washed over me, bringing the burning taste of bile to the back of my throat.

Purifiers. A name the X-Men knew all too well. Assholes bent on destroying mutants, cleansing the human gene pool of anybody they deemed unworthy. These bastards and their friends were hiding in and around the theatre, looking to take a page from the book of the jihadists, only instead of detonating a backpack of explosives in the crowded theatre, they were going to use Lila and her powers. These two were both just soldiers, dammit, and new to the cause if their language was any indication. Appeared they needed to say a few more 'Hail Marys' before they got their religious zealot card... They knew the basic plan, but not the details. Lila was a teleporter, her powers weren't offensive, more defensive. How the hell were they planning on 'detonating' her? I pulled out my phone and called Logan, still processing what I had seen in their minds. I took off running as it rang in my ear.

**Logan**

Too old for this crap. The warm-up act was almost done, thank frikkin' god. I don't know who or what a One-Direction was, but they made me want to jab my own claws into my ears. I shoved my way through the crowd for what seemed like the twentieth time, getting nothing unusual, just a lot of spoiled rich kids trying to get laid. After striking out on my surveillance, the buzz in my pocket surprised me and I almost dropped my damn phone. Text from Rogue; I frowned at the tiny screen. Get 2 LC? Lila Cheney. I moved towards the stage, thinking for a split second that maybe I should get to Rogue instead and back her up, but stopped myself and kept heading Lila's direction. If Rogue needed backup, she would have asked for it. She had proven she could handle herself time and again; that's why I always liked having her at my side.

I hit the backstage and found Sam with Lila, his arm wrapped protectively around the busty brunette. If trouble popped, he looked more than ready to rocket her away in a heartbeat. He rushed up to me, dragging Lila by her hand.

"Where's Rogue?" he asked, jacked up on adrenaline. "Do we cancel the concert?"

"We?" Lila pulled her hand free. "Excuse me, Guthrie, whose show do you think this is? And why would we cancel? Because Rogue says there's trouble? Well, what kind of trouble? What number on the shit-scale are we talking here, because I tell you what Sam, I am not running scared from this planet's petty prejudices!" He glared at her and opened his mouth to protest, but she took the wind out of his sails with one look. "Is that what you think I should do? Run and hide?"

He hung his head, defeated. "You do what you have to, Lila. We'll watch over you best we can." Goddamn Guthrie and his 'aw shucks' routine. Probably got him lots of pussy, but tonight it might get us all killed.

The crowd started chanting Cheney's name and you could practically see it calling to her. She kissed Sam and the kid blushed again. "Time to show them how it's done, sweetie," she said, beaming despite the fear I could smell on her. Girl had guts. Maybe it wasn't the smartest play, but I got where she was coming from. You didn't run and hide while the whole world was watching. She squared her shoulders and stepped onstage to thunderous, deafening applause. Guthrie moved into his position guarding the backstage area, I stepped towards the main floor, pausing to take a look at Lila. I'm not a fan of Cheney's music, but she launched into a slinky pounding number that had the crowd on their feet in an instant.

My phone buzzed repeatedly in my pocket, snapping me back to business. Rogue. Sam saw me answer and swarmed towards me, but I held out a hand and pushed him away with a glare. "Talk to me, girl." She was running through the crowd, her voice breathless, the background noise drowning her out even for my hearing.

"Purifiers!" She yelled and that one word sent ice down my back. Shit storm 10. "Took out two in the bathroom, but there's a whole damn squad of them here, mixed into the crowd! They want to use Lila's powers to cause some big accident! Get her the fuck off the stage, NOW!"

**Sam**

"Hello, New York!"

The roar of the crowd was deafening, but Lila's band eclipsed it. It was impressive: the lights, the sounds, twenty-five hundred voices rose to meet hers. She was beautiful, magical, weaving her spell on the theatre and on me, too, like she always had. I tore my eyes away from her and went back to pacing the backstage. I shielded my eyes and did my best visual sweep of the place, but it was hopeless. Part of me wanted to be searching the crowd, getting my hands dirty, anything but waiting. It felt like I was just standing there with my thumb up my ass until somebody made a move. But the other part wasn't leaving Lila's side. Logan was on his phone again and I headed towards him, but he knew what to do to make me stay put. Years of cred built up as X-Force and the New Mutant's squad leader, and that man still cowed me with one raised eyebrow like I was some punk kid wet behind the ears.

I sure didn't have to wait long for it all to go wrong. Halfway into the first song, an explosion ripped through the theatre in the back of the crowd. Gunfire and blaster bolts strafed the stage; canisters of tear gas followed, rainin' on us in the next heartbeat. Lila tried to use her power to bail, but one of the canisters managed to nail her in the head on its way down and she dropped like a sack of potatoes. Dammit! Fire, smoke, people screamed and surged in pain and there were too few of us to do anything about it. Why had she been so stubborn, and why had I listened to her? I should have never let her go onstage!

Gunmen poured in around us and I moved for Lila. Her band hightailed it past me and got in Logan's way, staggering and shielding their faces from the gas. Tears welled up in my eyes and I gagged, but through the blur I made out one of the attackers charging Lila. I blasted and barreled into him. 'Cannonball' they called me, because my powers wrecked everything in my path, but the bastard just smiled at me, unafraid. Normally, I was invulnerable when I used my power, but since I grabbed him by his jacket and held onto him he was in my blast field and could get at me, and he reached for my throat. I felt a pinprick pain along the side of my neck; he had goddamned injected me with something. Angry, hot pain seeped from the contact point, and I seized and doubled over in the air. My skin flared white hot and it felt like my powers had hit the gas pedal. I couldn't stop us, and, even though my original intent was to just jam him across the stage and out of the way, we shot through the theatre ceiling, giving the place a skylight.

I dropped him as we crashed, unable to hold onto anything anymore, the pain causing me to twitch and seize. We landed dramatically, the force creating a crater in the middle of the street and absolute agony heaved through me. I staggered to my feet and fell convulsing right back to my knees. I tried my damnedest to stop blasting, to turn my power off, but I couldn't. I felt like I was on fire, like I was a bomb ready to blow or a volcano waiting to erupt.

"Freeze, mutie!" Through my shaking, seizing haze, I saw that I was surrounded. A whole mess of one of the X-Men's old enemies, the Purifiers, had formed a ring around me and took aim with their blasters. They must not have recognized me, or maybe hadn't done their homework on any of Lila's possible 'mutie' associates. They should have known guns didn't do a damned thing to me when I was blasting. Lila had to concentrate to use her powers, but mine required less finesse, and whatever that bastard injected me with had my powers on overload. I doubted a missile would hurt me right now, at least from the outside. Inside was definitely a different matter. I shook violently and a crazy laugh bubbled out of my mouth as they opened fire on me with a combination of bullets and blasters. Couldn't feel a damn one of them, but somehow managed to get airborne, dropping all my assailants in one swipe. I felt the searing fire of my power flaring again, burning, sizzling my skin and nerves. Lila! I shoved off again, shaky as hell, and flew a crooked line back into the arena.


	2. Chapter 2

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

**Logan**

It went to hell real fast and I barely made it back onstage. They were flamin' everywhere! How the hell had we missed so many? That idiot Guthrie blasted after the first Purifier that went for Cheney and slammed off through the side of the building. Sounds of a firefight told me he had a nasty surprise outside waiting for him. Fuck! Where was Rogue? My stomach bottomed out and I hoped she was all right, that she hadn't gotten overconfident and gotten nailed. Girl still acted like she was an invulnerable tank, but I would never forgive myself if something happened to her on my watch.

The screaming crowd tore and pushed towards the exits like the panicked animals they were, and I couldn't help them. I finally had Cheney under my arm, but she was loopy, dead weight. She had got hit real good with one of the tear gas canisters they lobbed onstage and she couldn't see, couldn't focus enough to use her powers or I'm sure she would have been bound for the Crab Nebula or somewhere the fuck away from here by now. Gas was totally fucking with my senses, blunting my ability to smell and track our assailants.

I was headed for the nearest exit when a few Purifiers rushed the stage. I popped my claws and stayed defensive; one of them took aim and fired and pain lashed down my side like a whip. Cheney screamed, and I smelled the burning of my own flesh over the smell of the teargas. The blaster had pierced my jacket and roasted my skin. Fuck! I had to get her outta there, but all I was doing right then was shielding her. There were five of them coming up the sides of the stage, crawling towards us like spiders. I needed to gut some Purifiers fast or we were gonna get fried. Two more took aim at me and I covered Lila's body best I could. I tensed and a blaster bolt seared across my back, but only one. The other beam fired off wildly over my head as I turned to face them. Rogue had come out of nowhere, bone claws she got from me ripping into the second shooter, sending his shot wide.

The others came at us, and I shoved a groggy Cheney behind a stack of speakers. I took out two of them in one jump, claws out, slicing easily into surprised rib cages. I tangled with another and he actually held his own for about two seconds before I finished him. Rogue howled from behind me, and I caught wind of her blood and the stink of charred flesh. I chanced a look at her and she was on her knees, holding her side. Her borrowed claws were gone and blood ran down her hands and pooled on the floor underneath her. Fuck! The healing factor she took from me was all gone, Guthrie's power, too, from the looks of it, and one of those assholes had leveled his gun at her. I roared and jumped at him, and he switched targets, laying into me instead. I took him apart, but not before his blaster burned the flesh off of my hand. The adamantium bones beneath my skin flashed beneath the dripping gore of my melted muscles. A blazing white hot pain fueled rage rippled from the bottom of my guts.

Cheney screamed, and I turned, barely human enough in that moment to recognize she needed my help. A Purifier had her by the neck and injected her with something before I could make myself focus enough to move. Rogue was headed towards them, dragging herself halfway across the stage in a trail of her own blood, and the smell, the thick salty heat layered over her lavender body wash, pulled me back to myself. The Purifier fired at her, clipping her leg. She roared in pain, but she kept going, and I was right behind her. Cheney was on her knees, screaming her guts out. She started to glow, energy snakin' out of her body in ropy tendrils. I gutted the Purifier bastard responsible and Rogue made a wild grab for Lila. Behind us, more of our attackers rushed the stage. I threw myself into them, letting the animal in me take control, tearing into flesh and bone.

"Logan!" Rogue's voice was still strong but she smelled panicked, something I rarely caught on her. My eyes whipped back to her and Lila. Both women were on the floor and Rogue had gotten ahold of Cheney's wrists, trying to hold her up. Lila was in the middle of what looked like a seizure, and the girl was blazing with a fiery glow that was popping and sizzling from her skin. Cheney had managed to form one of her portals behind them, but one look at Lila's face told me that she had no control over what was happening to her or that portal. The lights were on, but nobody was home, you know what I mean? I tried to step towards them, but the portal grew, spinning energy out in every direction as it did, threatening to swallow the whole damned arena. I knelt down and shielded my eyes from the blinding light.

Rogue caught my stare and I knew what she was gonna try to do, absorb the girl's power with her own, take control of the portal herself. I shook my head fiercely and moved to stop her, but Cheney's power flared again and weighed down on me like a physical force, pushing me back a staggering step. Rogue did it anyway, goddamned stubborn ass, and Cheney flopped to the floor, unconscious. Rogue's eyes widened in pain, and that same glow bubbled up her skin from her knees to her hair. The portal didn't disappear, it only grew larger with Rogue as the fuel. She must have thought she could stop it, but was totally overwhelmed, doubling over in her own violent seizure.

**Sam**

The stage was a mess; there were Purifiers swarming everywhere. Where had they all come from? We had searched pretty damn thoroughly, but most of the assholes that shot at me were dressed as civilians. Did they buy up all the tickets or what? My stomach lurched as I caught sight of my friends.

Lila was on her knees. One of her portals had formed behind her, spilling angry light across the stage. It looked…wrong. I had seen Lila use her powers more times than I could count, but this portal sparked and pulsed, fizzling with a sick radiance. Rogue was in front of her and held onto her arms, trying to keep her upright. I realized what looked so strange. Lila flared and pulsated with raggedy energy, her powers burning bright just like mine, but it looked like she was in a trance, like her powers were out of her control. Rogue moved her grip to my girl's wrists and suddenly Lila dropped to the floor, Rogue screaming in the next instant and lighting up like a Christmas tree. I caught sight of Wolverine slicing through an army of Purifiers, staggering towards the stage, his arm a mangled bloody mess with claws.

I grabbed him and fastball special-ed him at Rogue. He screamed something at me, but I couldn't hear him over the roar of blood in my ears. I dove for Lila and tried to pick her up; she was limp and cold in my arms. My skin and insides still burned in pain, but I had at least managed to tone down my blasting enough to grab ahold of her. I didn't know what the hell that injection had done to me and my powers. I still couldn't completely shut them off; no time now to think of what that meant. I staggered, pushing Lila off the stage, and shielded her body with mine. I looked over my shoulder at Logan. It looked like he had hauled Rogue up on her haunches, but the light that poured out from her was so bright I could hardly see them, swallowing the two of them in its vibrating luminosity. The portal Lila had started grew with Rogue sustaining it, just like my girl had passed her the Olympic torch.

I heard it before I felt it, an implosion that flash blinded me, sucking all the air and light and noise from the room. The accompanying shockwave leveled everything in its wake, even with my power it pushed down on my back like somebody had cracked me with a two by four. I prayed, doing my best to cover Lila's unconscious body. The portal's energy rolled over us and everything else in its path.

When it was over, I took a shaky look in front of me, seeing enough of our surroundings to recognize we were still in the theatre. I turned frantically to where Rogue and Wolverine had been, knowing what I would find, but pleading to the man upstairs that I was wrong. I bit back a sick sob. My friends were gone, sucked ass backwards by that monster portal into the darkness of the galaxy, anywhere in the universe that Lila's power could take them. I shuddered and fumbled for my phone, hitting the Avengers' emergency number before finally giving in to the pain. Unconsciousness closed over me.

**Logan**

I woke slowly, lying on my backside, every inch of me sore and stiff. The sun blazed into me, and it took me a second or two longer than it should have to comprehend that I had been inside last thing I remembered. How the hell was the sun baking me? I rolled onto my side, body screaming as it knit itself back together. Grass crunched beneath my shifting body, the blades poking me blackened and burned. Nothing smelled right, except…Rogue. She was a couple feet from me, unconscious, her limbs splayed at unnatural angles. I growled at the smell of her blood soaked into the ground around her. I crawled towards her body. A breeze rushed over us as I raised a still healing hand, its skin the texture of ground beef, to check her pulse. What the fuck? I stopped and sniffed, finally taking a look around. Must be getting slow in my old age. My stomach twisted into a giant knot, the reality of our situation thumping cold in my belly. We weren't on Earth anymore, courtesy of Lila Cheney and whatever those Purifier bastards had done to her.

Rogue's pulse was thready. She had lost a lot of blood, but it had clotted and she was breathing. A quick injury check revealed nasty blaster wounds in her side and on one leg, and six ragged puncture wounds on the backs of her hands from the last time she popped my claws. Her exposed skin felt funny, paper thin over liquid, like she was one giant blistered sunburn. I remembered Lila flaring brighter than the sun. Had Cheney's fucked up powers burned her?

I looked around again and almost wished I hadn't. It felt like I was tripping on acid. The colors, sounds, smells all were similar to what I knew but twisted just a little bit, someone had tweaked the levels on my brain like a television screen. I was on the verge of a berserker rage or anxiety attack or whatever the hell you wanted to call it. I was freaking the fuck out. I pressed my hands to the sides of my head and screwed my eyes shut. All these flamin' alien smells were overloading my senses, I couldn't sort anything out but me, Rogue, and her blood. I took a deep breath, held it. Let it out. Did it again. And again. I opened my eyes slowly.

We had been deposited in the middle of a field best I could tell, no buildings or rocks, nothing nearby that would pass for trees. I stood shakily and turned in a slow circle, shielding my eyes from the hot sun. Rolling hills of…well, grass would be the best way of describing what met my eyes. I'm sure Hank would have been making up a bunch of dumbass words using Latin roots or something to describe my current surroundings, but I didn't care that much. It sort of looked like grass, only growing like crinkly cut French fries, so to me, it was grass.

The portal that had dumped us on whatever rock this was had burned a huge ring in the plain beneath our feet. The sky above us was clear. Not exactly the shade of blue of the sky back home, but teal, with the edges of the horizon melting into purple. One sun, a little bigger, a little redder. I inhaled deeply. Smelled okay, a little mustier than Earth, like someone had just plowed up a field of vinegar soaked mothballs. I moved my limbs experimentally, hopped, the gravity felt about right. We were fucking lucky Cheney's powers had put us on a planet with a breathable atmosphere. Straining my eyes I could barely see what looked like a few jagged trees on the far horizon. They looked to be our best bet so far for food, water, maybe shelter. Food, water, shelter. Food, water, shelter. I repeated it like a mantra, using the rhythm in an attempt to calm my strangled nerves.

We couldn't stay where we were, that much was obvious. We were out in the open, unprotected. I knelt to pick up Rogue's limp form and started walking, slowly. With each step, I tried to sort out the strange smells and sounds around us, tried to keep my nostrils open for anything that smelled animal or angry. What the fuck were we gonna do? What came next? After food, water, shelter, then what? Did we keep moving, trying to find what passed for civilization here? Hard to tell yet if this planet was inhabited, but if it was, then what? Hope they didn't burn us alive at first sight and ask if they had a spaceship capable of intergalactic travel that we could borrow?

All I could focus on was surviving; my brain couldn't handle anything else in that moment. Being off-world before, I knew my healing factor at least gave me an edge if I tried to eat anything alien. Took a lot to kill me if something was poisonous, and I could share that advantage with Rogue when she woke up. If she woke up. Shit, don't even think like that. I put one foot in front of the other and stepped, wobbling. I shook my head and tucked Rogue's under my chin to keep her steady. She was cold, had lost a lot of blood. If she could absorb my healing factor she would be fine, but now that she had control of her power it didn't work unless she made it work. For a fleeting second I wished she was like she was, then I could have forced my power on her no matter what.

No other scents were at the entry site but ours; Guthrie and Lila hadn't gotten sucked into the portal with us. Of course not. An easy way home would have been too much to ask for. If there was a win in this fucked up situation, at least nobody came through but us, nobody besides us was at risk. Rogue must have been able to stop that portal from growing any bigger, shutting it down and sending us through before it got anyone else. If Cheney survived, maybe she could find us, track us down. I was dreaming. _If_ she had survived, a big fucking if, finding us would be like finding a needle in a haystack. I had no idea if Lila could backtrack portals she had previously created or not. I knew the X-Men would do whatever they could do to find us, but we couldn't wait for a rescue that realistically wasn't fucking coming. Best thing we could do was keep moving. Food, water, shelter. Anything else would be a bonus. I walked towards the trees in the distance, hoping to make it before nightfall and that there would be water nearby.

Funny. If I blurred my eyes, the landscape almost looked like a psychedelic England. Things weren't melting or anything, yet, but it was all just a little off, shapes of plants different, exaggerated, a plant with purple flowers curled into spirals, another one shot red spikes in firework patterns out from its stem. I heard skittering, smelled what I assumed were small animals that were keeping their distance from us. The lemon yellow grass outside our crash site looked like it went on forever; it grew nearly waist high. Rogue's dangling ankles swished through it as I carried her, and the noise was oddly soothing, like the tinkling sound of ice on the ocean.

I was getting tired, sweating a cold sweat, choking on my panic. Had to stay strong, stay in control. I kissed Rogue's hair and smelled deep her warm familiar smell, used it to steady me. She needed me. We both needed to survive, to hold on. I needed to find us water.

My heart sank as I realized Cheney's powers were probably gonna fade in Rogue before she was conscious enough to use them. I wanted to scream, but I kept walking for the trees, no idea how far away they were, putting one foot in front of the other.

**Rogue**

"You've gotta' wake up, darlin'."

With awareness came pain, a pain so intense I turned and dry heaved on the ground.

"It's all right, darlin', it's all right." A cool hand brushed the hair from my face. Everything hurt, I felt like I had been microwaved. My clothes chaffed every square inch of my skin. I was shaking so hard my teeth rattled against each other, the cold seeping into the marrow of my bones. "You need to absorb my powers, Anna, you gotta' do it. You're going into shock." Logan. Used my real name, too, must have been mighty serious. He was holding me in his lap and gingerly put his face against mine, one of the only places on my body that didn't hurt. Hurt as much, anyway. "Please, darlin'." I pulled with my powers and felt his healing factor spread over me like a cool balm. I moaned and bit my lip to stop from crying out.

"That's it, that's my girl," he whispered. I felt things start to weave back together, the agony of healing almost more painful than the wounds themselves. The blackness took me again and I didn't fight it.

**Sam**

"You are not recovering as quickly as I'd like, Mr. Guthrie."

Dr. Henry McCoy, the blue-furred Beast, looked up from my medical chart and pushed his glasses up onto his nose. "My tests concerning the elusive substance they injected you with, what I have affectionately begun calling 'Surge', the name taken in blatant disregard to the trademark of the discontinued carbonated beverage, have been inconclusive. There is no trace of any foreign substance left in your system or Lila's, yet you are still experiencing pain and she has yet to regain consciousness. Your description of the initial adverse effects of the injection, the power amplification and lack of control you experienced, alarms me. Until further research has been conducted, I do not advise you return to Avenger's mansion. Consider yourself on modified bed rest until further notice. No active duty with either team, no teaching at the school and absolutely no undue stressing of your system until we are in a better position to determine the long term repercussions of the Purifier's weapon, whatever they may be." Paper crinkled under me as I swung my legs down from the examination table.

"Thanks a lot, Doc." I pulled my shirt back on and stepped towards the door but wobbled when I moved. Hank's big old mitt grabbed my shoulder.

"I repeat, you are on the injured list. Until we know if there are any lasting effects, you are, quite frankly, an unknown quantity."

Lasting effects. I swallowed hard and my eyes made their way to the gleaming glass window separating us from the ward's hospital beds. Lila was lying there, tubes and cords coming out of her every which way from Sunday. She hadn't opened her eyes since they had ambushed us at her concert.

"It's only been a week, Sam. You need to take it easy on yourself." I clenched my jaw and shrugged off his paw the best I could.

"Take it easy? Lila's in a damn coma and Anna and Logan are who the hell knows where, with absolutely no way for us to get to them. Hell, we don't even know where or how to start looking for them. If that drug 'surged' my power, it did hers, and maybe Rogue's, too, when she absorbed Lila. Lila's normal range is over a thousand damn light years! Amped up? They could be on the other side of the known universe, if they even landed on a planet at all…and you want me to take it easy!?" I scrubbed my hands into my eyes. Hank's touch made its way to my shoulder again.

"This isn't your fault, Sam." I dropped my hands and looked towards the speckled acoustic tiles of the cream-colored ceiling.

"My mission. They came because I asked them. I…I think I got our friends killed, Hank." I tried to hold it together, but sobbed brokenly like some kid. "They're gone, and we're never gonna find them." Surprisingly, Hank spun me around and bear-hugged me. It was messed up, but I couldn't help but notice how soft his fur was, like how I always imagined hugging Cookie Monster would be when I was little. His voice was calm but stern, and his big chest rumbled soothingly while he talked me down.

"Not one person blames you, Sam, or Lila. Not one person. And no one is giving up on our friends, do you hear me? The X-Men know people out in the universe. My girlfriend has intergalactic connections, and there are the Shi'ar, the Guardians, all of the Avengers' contacts. The word is out. If anyone hears a peep from Rogue and Wolverine, we'll find them." He held me out and stared at me until I looked him in his eyes. "When Lila wakes up, she will help us find them. You did the right thing bringing her here. Rachel, our resident red-headed telepath, has been working to heal Lila's unconscious mind. She says that though Lila is hurt and needs time to heal, her psyche remains intact. Rogue's power did not cause any permanent damage. Her recovery will be slow, but she's a fighter. So are Anna and Logan. His healing factor will keep them both alive until we can find them." He squeezed my shoulders. "Try not to be so hard on yourself. And try to eat something, get a little rest."

I gestured to the chair next to Lila's bed in the next room. "You know where to find me if anything changes." He shook his shaggy head.

"Bed rest, Sam, not butt-numbing-plastic-chair rest. Take a break, doctor's orders. You can surely spare twenty minutes from your vigil to get something to eat." I opened my mouth to protest, but Hank raised an eyebrow at me. "Don't make me put in a feeding tube, Sam." He pushed me backwards out the door.

"Ten minutes?" I sputtered and he growled at me. I rolled my eyes and limped slowly along the hallway to the elevator. The sickbay was in the lower levels of the school, so I headed upstairs towards the kitchen. The new Jean Grey School was nice, don't get me wrong, state of the art, but every day I missed the old Xavier mansion. Cracks and all, it had been home in a way this place never would be. I shuffled along, dodging worried looks from students in the halls. The kitchen, thankfully, was empty. I wasn't hungry, but poured myself a cup of coffee. Yeah, caffeine probably counted as stressing my system, but it was hot and smelled too good to pass up.

I walked towards the windows and my heart hurt at the sight that greeted me. Gambit, Remy LeBeau, sat alone on the back steps, smoking a cigarette. 'Nobody blames you', Hank had said. Looking at Remy's drawn, haggard face I knew that statement was 100% wrong. Storm had called him as soon as a very guilt stricken Bobby Da Costa had answered my distress signal and brought me and Lila to the school. Remy was here by the time Hank had finished his first examination of me, and had been haunting the school ever since. He looked as lost as I felt, completely helpless. He hadn't said a damn word to me. I knew we weren't exactly friends, but I had thought we got along pretty solid. Guess I was wrong. I sighed and put my cup down on the table. This mess was my fault, and Remy deserved to hear the details from me. Wishing belatedly I had grabbed my jacket, I stepped outside into the crisp fall air.

"Thought you quit?" I asked as I stuffed my hands into my pockets and sat beside him. He took a long drag and exhaled.

"I did." His jaw was stiff and he stared across the grounds with those dark devil eyes of his. I swallowed hard.

"Remy, I…" His raised hand cut me off.

"Don't want your apologies, Sam. We find them. That's it. End of story." We sat in silence while he slowly finished his cigarette. I was ready to get up and go inside when he finally turned to me. "Your girl, Lila, I've been around her on a few missions over the years, worked with her when you guys came to stay with us in Valle Soleda. I remember that she's a teleporter on a galactic level, but can you tell me any more details about her powers?"

I leaned back, shivering against the railing. "Yeah. Sure. Uh, celestial-scale teleporter would be the official Xavier-definition. Means she teleports galaxy to galaxy, no jumps shorter than a thousand light years. She can skip across star systems, but she can't teleport across the room or to the other side of the same planet. Not so great in some respects, ridiculously awesome in others."

He furrowed his brow. "Nothing under a thousand? How far out can she go?"

"Her range?" I shook my head. "Don't know how far she's ever pushed it. And with the power amplification caused by whatever we were injected with…"

He crushed the cigarette butt under his boot. "Can she remember where she's gone before? Backtrack the portals she's made?"

Huh. For knowing Lila so well, I knew diddly-squat about how her powers actually worked. I only had a handle on what I had witnessed first-hand. "Are you asking if she could tell us where the portal she made during the attack was headed? I'm sorry, but I honestly don't know. She was pretty out of it when she created the jump, drugged and hurting, and then Rogue absorbed her powers and either finished the jump or…" He flinched at Anna's name and my mouth went dry. "Maybe, with Rachel's help, after she's conscious…" He stood in an angry huff. "I just don't know, Remy. I'm sorry."

He hung his head and moved for the door, but stopped. "I love that girl," he said quietly with his back to me. Anna. This was the tongue lashing I had been waiting for; I was responsible for the disappearance of the love of his life. "For so long, the two of us have done nothing but dance around each other and away from what we both really wanted. The last time I saw her, I pushed her from me with both my hands." He turned ferociously towards me, his red eyes burning. "That will not be the last thing between us in this life. Count on that, Samuel."


	3. Chapter 3

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

**Logan**

How could someone so small be so damn heavy? I shifted Rogue's lifeless form in my arms, bending low to listen for her heartbeat as I walked. It was there, and she was breathing, barely, but that was the best I had right now. Her injuries stopped me from flipping her ass up and over my shoulder, but I was gettin' pretty near needin' to change positions. Had been walking forever, the blazing hot sun burnin' my brains during the days, spending the near freezin' nights shivering under a sky lit by billions of alien stars. I walked when I could, stopped when I had to.

We needed water. I would last longer than she would, but if she didn't wake up soon and absorb more of my power, she was in real trouble. I had tried walkin' towards trees, thinkin' maybe some sort of water source was feeding them. When that was a bust, I had chased the flocks of rainbow colored birds circling overhead, hoping maybe they had a clue. So far, nothin', and I was getting real fucking desperate.

I staggered and nearly dropped her. Break time. I kicked down some of the grass, laid her gently onto the ground. I shaded her the best I could from the sun, she was pale, even for her, and it worried me. She should have regained consciousness after getting a dose of my healing factor, but it had been days since she last opened her eyes. I grabbed her wrist to feel for her pulse, pressing hard into the skin to feel it even though I could already hear her dangerously slow heartbeat. The marks my fingers had left on her flesh filled back in as soon as I let go, she wasn't quite that dehydrated yet.

Angry fear ripped through me but I squashed it, gritted my teeth against the white hot panic searing my throat. She was hurt bad and I couldn't do anything about it. I hated feelin' so flamin' helpless. Other nagging things pushed into my brain despite my best effort to stay numb. Would the others even come for us? Could they? All of our friends, our family, I couldn't deal right now with the possibility we might not see them again, wouldn't let myself go there. Jesus…Ororo. We had hardly got started, darlin, and now…I stomped the feelings down, hard. I breathed deep, trying to find my center, but this crazy world churned everything inside me like a blender. Other things needed to come first, I told myself.

A noise pressed in on the very edge of my perception, so faint I hadn't caught it walking. I stilled myself and held my breath. It wasn't comin' from the direction I had been headin', off a different way. Maybe I was finally losin' it, hallucinating, running off after a mirage in a desert of grass, but it sounded like goddamn running water.

"Nap time's over, darlin'," I whispered to Rogue. I hauled her up from the ground and charged towards the sound. The louder it got, the faster I ran. If I was wrong, if I had wasted this much energy for nothin'…

I whooped out loud as I crashed through the grass. There it fucking was, a stream! A goddamn mother fucking stream! "Would you look at that?" I squeezed Rogue's unresponsive body to me and kissed her head, lying her down on a patch of dirt beneath a scrappy lookin' bush. I got as close as I could without jumping in the water and peeped over the edge of the grass that lined the shore. It was clear, shallow, rocks and sand scattered along the bed. Wasn't very wide, but it looked like it kept going, I could see it cutting a wandering path through the endless sea of grass to the horizon.

I bent over and cupped the cold water in my hands, smelled it. Rock and a hard place. If it made us sick with some weirdo bacteria or poison, we could be fucked even with my ability to heal, but we wouldn't live much longer without water.

"Cheers, darlin'," I called to Rogue and drank deeply. It tasted all right, pretty damn good actually, like water dripped over charcoal. I kept drinking. Figured I'd sit here for a couple hours and see if anything exploded out of me before I gave any to her. I rinsed the dirt from my face, wet my hands and ran them next over Rogue's face and neck, dampened her hair and pushed it back on her forehead. A little bit of hope flared in the pit of my stomach. If this beaut of a stream kept goin', maybe it'd join with something bigger. At least if we stuck by it, we'd have water, maybe food…it was the closest thing I had to a plan.

**Rogue**

"You've gotta' drink this, darlin'." Cool liquid touched my parched lips and I swallowed. It tasted so good and cold, quenched the awful ache in my belly. "Not so fast, you'll get sick." I tried to sit up but my arms and legs were stiff, heavy and painful. My head spun and Logan gently pushed me back down by my shoulders. "Take it easy, give yourself time." I swallowed thickly and his hand brushed the tickling hairs from my face. He held his palm to my cheek. "Let's try one more dose of healing factor. Doctor's orders, okay?" I tried to smile at him but my cheeks were so heavy. I leaned into his strong hand and pulled with my powers.

Since learning control of my mutant 'gift', a lot had changed for me, beyond being able to casually touch my friends and family without fearing I would swallow them whole. Now, using my own talent I could simply borrow another's powers, _just_ their powers, no more unwanted memories, no more knocking my victims instantly unconscious. I could borrow what I wanted, how I wanted, without the messiness of someone else's personality or privacy. Problem was, even though I had control, it did require a little skill and concentration. I was hurt, I was sloppy, and my pull got me a whole dose of Wolverine's memories. My eyes snapped open and met his grim gaze, my mouth gaping like a fish out of water, I tried to speak, but didn't know what in the world to say to him. I looked around wildly, my breathing labored. Not sickbay, not my room, not Avengers' mansion, or the school. We were outside in the open, under a tree, the sounds of swirling grass filling my ears. It was dim, the landscape around us lit by the fading sunset. My muddled brain tried to fit the puzzle pieces together. Where the hell were we?

"Calm down, Rogue. Take a deep breath." I shuffled through his memories but nothing in his brain made any sense. I saw a starry sky that didn't match, a sun that wasn't our sun, trees and plants that were trees and plants but not. I saw Lila awash in a flame of her power and saw myself swallowed by the same fire. Though I was terrified of the answer, I met Logan's gaze and choked out my question anyway.

"Where are we?" He sighed and grimaced. Reliable Logan, tough, steady like a rock, the Wolverine was the best at what he did, and I had always counted on him to stand tall when I couldn't. Fear dug its cold fingers into me when I saw his mask of badassery slip for just a second, and he looked at me, scared as hell, almost ill.

"Your guess is as good as mine. What's the range on Lila's powers, a thousand light years?"

Jesus H. Christ. Tears sprung to my eyes and I covered my face with my hands to hide them. Shit. I had absorbed her powers, was she still in there? Frantic, I sat up and shoved his hands aside. I tried to stand, but fell smack on my knees onto the cold ground, scraping my hands on the gritty surface. My heart hammered so hard in my chest that I felt like I was gonna pass out again, but Logan was over me, wrapping his muscular arms around me. I was shaking to my soul. He pulled me onto his lap and held me close to his chest.

"Her power's gone, Logan," I said, absolutely defeated. He kissed the top of my head and squeezed me around the ribs.

"I figured. You've been out for a while. Whatever they did to her did a number on you, too. Wasn't sure you were gonna make it."

"I did this," I realized miserably. "This is my fault."

He grabbed my face angrily and twisted it, forcing me to look at him. "Bullshit. You made what you thought was the right move to save Cheney. Those Purifiers are the fuckers to blame." He held one side of my face and crushed me to his chest again. I listened to his steady, pounding heartbeat, inhaled along with his slow, deep breaths. We stayed like that until I stopped trembling.

"What are we gonna do?" I whispered into the growing darkness.

"Survive," he said.

**Logan**

It was a few days before Rogue was up and moving around. She'd been real quiet and it spooked me. Girl usually had such a big damned mouth, but she was only speaking to me when I asked her a direct question. She looked shell-shocked and just stared off with those big green eyes of hers, not paying a lick of attention to me or our surroundings. I kept making her take some of my healing factor to recover. Every time she touched me, her hands were long-fingered ice cubes. Not much to do to help her if she was cold. Our campsite was barely protected by a couple spiraling scraggly trees. It had been warm enough during the day to be thankful of the little bit of shade they provided, but we were still outside under the alien stars at night, and it got cold once the sun went down. I hadn't wanted to start a fire until we knew what to expect from this weird ass place, hated to draw attention to ourselves, but I gave up after listenin' to her chatterin' teeth the first night she was awake. I was trying not to worry like some old biddy, but it was like the fight had gone out of her already. I couldn't have that.

I debated long and hard on what we should do, whether we should stay put or move. I was making myself crazy, spinning my head around in circles. If we stayed where we were, we were close enough to the original teleport destination that if any of our people came looking for us right away, we'd be easy to find. From scouting around our general area there had been a little water in the form of the small stream, some rodent-like animals, berries and other plants that I could test to make sure we could eat. We were sort of exposed which made me uncomfortable, but I could probably cobble together a makeshift shelter for a more long-term situation.

But, if we stayed, we could maybe be a hundred miles from a humanoid civilization and not even flamin' know it. Maybe one that had a goddamned wormhole transporter or interstellar cellphone. But, if we moved, who knew what could be waitin' for us over the horizon. It'd be rough and it'd be risky, and maybe we didn't want to find whatever civilization was on this planet. They might be the most dangerous thing here. Besides that, we had jack shit for supplies. We came with just the clothes on our backs, which were already pretty ripped up, and the junk that was in our pockets. It was pathetic. Thank fucking god she had changed her boots. The weather could be a huge problem, we had no idea what the temperature was going to be or stay. Right now, it was like Earth in late summer, warm during the day, cool nights. Hadn't rained yet, but it would, the native trees and grass were lush, we clearly weren't in a desert. What if we were here for a while? What happened if this planet had a winter like ours? It was something I didn't want to think about right now, but the idea ate at the back of my brain.

Best thing we had going for us was our powers and my adamantium claws, but we needed something to carry water and food if we were on foot in unknown terrain. Somehow, Rogue had managed to hold onto her purse, some little leather bag with the strap going across her body that had a plastic water bottle shoved in it, but that wouldn't hold enough for one person to drink travelling heavy, let alone two.

Something was bothering me about this planet, more than the crazy fucking smells and the colors that were just short of a cartoon. I wasn't a damned scientist or astronomer or whatever, but seemed I remember Reed Richards or Hank McCoy, somebody with a bunch of letters behind their name, talking about how there were only so many inhabitable worlds in the universe, was one of the reason Galactus got everybody's panties in such a twist. Planet like this couldn't be empty of humanoids or something higher up on the food chain. If we were here long enough, we were gonna run smack into it. Good or bad, I guessed we'd find out.

After a few days, I decided that we had to move. I couldn't have her just sitting here, waiting for a rescue that probably wasn't gonna come. We were gonna have to rescue ourselves, figure out a way to survive here. It may be a fight out there, but I'd rather see her fighting instead of seeing the kicked puppy look she kept giving me. God dammit, this girl survived by herself, no powers, in the Savage Land for Christ's sake! She didn't lay down and give up, and I wouldn't let her.

The fire burned low and smoky in the middle of our camp. I checked the pathetic chunks of game, some pink feathery little guinea pig looking thing I had caught and tested with my stomach, cleaned and rigged above the fire to smoke. Figured we'd wrap the pieces in some leaves from one of the bigger plants and shove them in our pockets for the road. Didn't really have a concrete plan, but thought about following the stream I'd been getting us water from, see where it lead us. At least then we'd have water and could probably fish or something for food. Maybe the stream would empty into a river. Most humanoid species needed water to survive, odds would go up of finding whoever lived on this planet if we found our way to a larger body of water. Fuck, I still didn't know if that was even a good idea, maybe we needed to stay the hell away from whoever lived here. I just didn't know, but I had to do something and made my decision.

"We'll move out at dawn," I growled over my shoulder, getting absolutely no response. I looked towards Rogue, irritated. She was sitting away from the fire, leaning against one of the trees ringing the camp, her face lit by the glow from her cell phone. I shook my head, temper flaring, but tried my damndest to clamp it down. Apparently, cell phones survived intergalactic teleportation, at least phones made by Tony Stark. If we ever got home, he'd be fucking ecstatic to hear it. A little out of range for making a call, obviously, but I assumed she was looking at her pictures. These last few days she had been clingin' to that phone like a life raft, and I didn't want to think what was gonna happen when the battery died.

"Rogue." My voice was sharper than I meant it to be. "Did you hear me, girl?"

"Yes." She didn't even look up. I swallowed a growl and kept messing with the guinea pig.

"Can you help me here?" I asked.

She looked up at me under her long eyelashes, her expression dead. "Seems like you've got it handled." She turned her attention back to her screen and I was seconds away from snatching it from her and throwing it against the ground.

"Anna." Didn't often call her by her given name. She was Rogue to me for too long, it suited her. I pulled out her name for the important things and she knew it. She set her phone in her lap and raised her chin defiantly. I kept talking, trying to pull her out of herself. "You've been in this situation before. We've hardly got anything for tools or supplies, any bright ideas? Anything I'm missing here?"

She stared at me silently. I was ready to scream at her and shake her by her shoulders when a look crossed her face like she going to vomit. She covered her mouth with one of her hands and shut her eyes.

"Rogue?" I moved towards her but she held her other hand up to stop me.

"I…I thought we were staying put for a while?" she whispered.

"We can't stay here. It's too exposed to the weather, and we need to see what else is out there. What if help is just around the corner?"

"But, what if…" her voice broke but she didn't start crying. "What if they come for us and we're not here? What if they can't find us?"

I stood and rubbed my hands angrily down my face. "We can't bank on that and you know it. Staying here's not really a good option. It's too open, not a lot of food or water. We either need to look for civilization or look for a place that'll shelter us long-term. Sorry, darlin', looks like there's no Magneto to save you this time." Her green eyes blazed. I knew I had crossed a line, but I was so fucking ecstatic to finally have a response from her that I didn't give a shit how mad my comment had made her. She jumped to her feet.

"Go to hell, Logan." She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket and stomped off into the darkness. I let her go. She had absorbed my healing factor. She'd yell if she had trouble, and truth to tell, I was a little sick of her goddamned attitude right then. It wasn't my fault we were in this mess.

The glow of her phone on the ground caught my eyes and I stooped to pick it up. I was sorely tempted again to dash it against the tree, but I turned the screen towards me. My stomach sank. Picture of her and LeBeau in happier times. Fuck. I hung my head guiltily. I knew this mess wasn't her fault either.

Rogue and the Cajun. Made me wish for the old days. When had everything gotten so damned complicated? Those two still loved each other, even after all the crap they had put each other through. I didn't know if they should be together, but if they wanted to be… They just had never been able to get it together, to keep it together. Both too stubborn. After her…relationship with that bastard Magneto, I wasn't sure where they had left things. Right now she probably felt like there was a lot of unfinished business between her and Gambit, maybe like she was never gonna see him again and I had just rubbed her nose in it.

I took off after her, following her scent. Girl was smart, she didn't go very far. She kept her back to me and hugged herself tightly in the darkness.

"Rogue, I didn't mean…"

"Yes, you did." She turned to face me, eyes fierce. "And you're right. You're an asshole, like always, but you're right. Nobody to help us but ourselves, that's what you're sayin'? This rock may be our new home, our friends just memories." The sadness was rolling off of her in waves and I was drowning in it. I closed the distance between us, forcing her into my chest. She sighed and shuddered, buried her face between my neck and shoulder. Didn't cry, though. That's my girl. Tough. We stayed like that, still and quiet, away from the fire, the alien sky above us ablaze with stars in constellations I'd never seen. We stood for a while longer and watched the stars shimmer and move above us, listened to the swirl of the alien wind.

"Do you think our sun is one of those stars?" she asked sadly. "Or are we too far away to even see it?"

I tipped her chin towards me. "Try to keep your mind off stuff like that. Need to stay focused, keep moving ahead. Don't worry," I said fiercely, "I'll take care of you." She snorted and rested her forehead against mine.

"We'll take care of each other," she answered roughly.

**Sam**

My powers were fucked. 'Scuse my language, but that was the best word for them. All the eggheads kept throwing out theories as to what was going on, but the thing about theories? They were nothin' but a guess, and they meant you had no goddamned clue as to what was really happening.

Doc still had me on loose bed rest, I say loose 'cause he knew there was no way I'd stay in bed with Lila still unconscious in sickbay. He kept me in my own room for as long as I would take it, but finally gave up and helped me wheel a bed right alongside hers. I felt terrible, pain in my joints and on every inch of my skin. Got tired real easy, tired and cold, so cold I shivered constantly. McCoy's orders were to not stress my system, which, according to him, meant no powers. So, it had been a goddamned month since I had used my blast field, a month since Lila had been attacked and put in a coma, a month since we'd been injected with whatever the hell we were injected with, a fucking month since Anna and Logan had been sent to who knows where. A whole month, and after all the pain and trouble of the initial attack, none of the eggheads thought to have me test my powers to see if they were working right.

Well guess fucking what? They weren't.

I went outside a couple of days ago, feeling almost good enough to take a walk. Doc's standing orders were for me to get some fresh air. Couldn't stand seeing Lila like that, hearing the steady hum of the respirator and the beep of the heart monitor was starting to get to me. Rachel had been coming in for her daily 'therapy' session with Lila and kicked my ass out of the room. She was making no progress, best I could tell. Lila was still unconscious. Rachel pushed me physically and mentally out the door.

"I don't need your interference, Sam," she said coolly. Interference? T'hell with her anyway. No. Sorry. I didn't mean that, she was trying her best to help. One of the Doc's 'theories' was that I would have been in my own coma if I hadn't been blasting when they injected me. Egghead consensus was my partial invulnerability protected me somewhat from the effects of the injection. I wasn't sure if I subscribed to that one. If that had been the case, how had that Purifier bastard been able to inject me in the first place? Like I said, they had no clue. I think they were just throwin' stuff at the wall to see what stuck.

Rachel's glare told me she had picked up on my less than charitable assessment of her therapeutic skills. I shoved angrily out the door and stamped down the cold metallic hall. Was hard to stomp and limp in pain at the same time, but I did the best I could.

I passed the War Room on my way to the elevators, the large space filled top to bottom with state of the art computer hardware and monitoring systems. It was where all the X-Men's communications were routed through. The door was open, and, walking by, I caught a glimpse of Gambit huddled over a keyboard. The man had barely slept for the last month, and when he was awake he was knee deep in the War Room, monitoring interstellar communications, spending his days and nights talking to anybody who would listen to him through a universal translator. That old familiar guilt twisted my stomach. Man looked like he'd lost twenty pounds; I think he had been living on nothing but cigarettes and coffee. His face was beat, tired.

I had to lean against the inside elevator walls, suddenly dizzy. Happened too quickly these days. It passed, and I avoided the students the best I could on my way outside. The outdoor air was crisp with that perfect fall smell of dead leaves and wood burning stoves. I walked slowly along the path that ringed the campus, stopping too often to catch my breath.

When there was nothing else to distract me, my thoughts went to them. I hoped it wasn't cold where they were. I kept telling myself that Logan's powers would keep them safe, that Anna could use hers to share, that they wouldn't starve or freeze or get hurt. Based on the investigations conducted by the Avengers and the X-Men, agreement was that Rogue likely hadn't been injected by Surge. Only found two empty syringes at the sight of the attack, expelled from the Purifier's weapon like spent shell casings. Trying to remember a whole lot about that night was still blurry for me. I do remember Anna glowing, but that glow had looked like Lila's power signature, like she had borrowed Lila's abilities with her own. Anna had probably used her powers to stop Lila's portal from swallowing the arena whole, bless her. I held onto the hope that her own mutant powers would protect her wherever she and Logan had landed.

I got dizzy again and realized I had walked further from the school than I had meant to. I didn't want to have to call for help like an idiot and get chewed out by McCoy. Figured it was a great day for flying, so I gave it a shot. My power always came natural, like wiggling your toes or licking your lips. I didn't think too hard about using them, just pushed and there they went. Only they didn't. I pushed and tried again, and it was like my powers were there, they were just…muffled. Hidden, like I couldn't get to them. I concentrated, pushing so hard I broke out into a cold sweat. All I got for my efforts was a little ripple of my blast and a shooting, burning pain. I screamed and dropped to my knees, my skin afire so hot it damn near burned my brain. Sweet Jesus, what had they done to us?


	4. Chapter 4

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

**Rogue**

"Damn."

It took me a few steps before I realized that Logan had stopped walking. I turned, surprised to see him rubbing his hand along his stomach. It was late afternoon and had been hours since we had last taken a break.

"Something wrong?" I headed back towards him through the waist-high blades of crinkled, buttery grass. He shook his head, but the look on his face was a worrisome mix of confusion and pain.

"Stomach's just makin' crazy noises." Considering our always hungry bellies had been competing daily for whose could growl the loudest, 'crazy noises' really meant somethin'. As I was finding out, you could survive a long time without much food as long as you had water, especially with a mutant healing factor constantly knitting your body back together on a cellular level. Even with the occasional help of his powers, I was wearing out, our bellies beyond empty with how hard we had been pushing every day. Don't get me wrong, we were eating, and I was grateful for every bite that passed my lips. I knew things could definitely be worse, but the grasslands didn't provide a whole lot of edible choices. A few bitter greens, or yellows in this case, and some small stringy game were pretty much it for food selections. Nothing super substantial had managed to make it on Logan's menu so far, and the stubborn asshole insisted on eating everything first to see if it was dangerous.

"Can you make it to those trees up ahead?" I pointed a football field ahead of us to a lame excuse for an orchard, nothing more than three or four curlicue saplings that together shaded less square footage than a picnic blanket. He nodded, but within a few steps his walk became a gut-gripping hobble. I did my best to help him, slung one of his hefty arms around my shoulders and looped mine around his thick waist. He's a short guy, shorter than me, but all muscle, his adamantium laced skeleton making him heavier than a wheel barrow full of bricks. There was no way I could drag him if he couldn't move himself. He was dripping, sweatier than normal. Oh, lord, I didn't know what we were gonna' do if he was sick. Would his healing factor be able to cope with an alien virus?

We pushed out of the tangled edge of the grass into the empty patch surrounding the trees just in time for Logan to pitch forward and throw up all over the sandy soil, his vomit a shocking electric orange, the neon shade of a traffic cone.

"It's okay, it's okay." He was on all fours and I knelt beside him and rubbed his broad back, wrinkling my nose at the acidic smell. He hung his head and spit into the sand, then leaned back on his haunches. I helped him stand and waddled him a few more feet to the shade, propping him against the skinny trunk of one of the trees. His face was so pale it was grey, and he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

"You were testing something again, weren't you?" I set my jaw, trying to keep my temper in check, but inside I was seething. His brilliant strategy for our survival included using himself as a guinea pig for any potential alien food sources we stumbled upon. As soon as I realized what the idiot was doin' I had put my foot down. If I had learned anything during my time in the Savage Land, it was that it was better to ere on the side of caution when it came to food. Keep things simple, find what works and stick to it. Lots of things could be eaten, sure, but lots of things could tear you up. Better to eat boring and be just a little bit hungry than to vomit up the inside of your stomach, lose all your water. No way no how was I gonna' let him risk himself just so we could have a little more variety in our daily meals. Was I hungry? Yeah, but we had figured out enough things to stomach so far, enough to keep us going anyway. Do you think that was where it dropped? Too much to ask that he be reasonable? Well, sugar, that wasn't how the Wolverine did things. That SOB had probably been stuffing his pockets when I wasn't looking, and now he had eaten something that had made him sick. I fought the urge to scream at him, but figured he probably could smell how goddamned angry and worried I was. "What did you eat?" I asked, keeping my voice even. His breath came out in a shudder.

"Just some berries." Jesus H. Christ, if this didn't kill him, I might.

"Oh, sugar, when are mystery berries ever a good idea?" He chuckled, which made him grimace and clutch his stomach. "Especially berries that color. What were you thinking?"

"Weren't that color goin' down, darlin'," he said. "They tasted pretty good." I snorted.

"Taste pretty good comin' back up?" He glowered at me.

"Too much trouble to ask you to get me some water in between lectures, Anna?" I gritted my teeth, smiled syrupy sweet on top of white hot angry.

"Sure thing, Logan." I rose and stepped towards the water with my poor little plastic bottle in my hand. It was already looking worn at this point, but it was the only container we had. I wished we had a knapsack or something bigger than my purse to haul things along with us, maybe then I could make some cups or bowls for us. I filled the bottle, sniffed it, and took a small sip myself. Thankfully, the water here hadn't given us any trouble so far, no pollution or strange bacteria and we'd been drinking it for weeks now. The last thing I wanted was to add some alien water parasite on top of his poison crunch berries. At least he was puking the sons of bitches up and was still coherent while doing it. Hopefully, that meant as soon as they were out of his stomach they'd be out of his system. It's not like I wasn't appreciative of what he was doing, he was just looking out for me and trying to save me any hurt he could, and I was grateful. Just wished he were a little more rational about it instead of just shoving whatever he could find down his pie hole.

I wiped the sandy dirt from my knees as I stood and walked back to him. "No more testing anything neon, okay?" The only answer I got was the sound of puke splashing onto the ground. I sighed. It was gonna' be a long night.

**Logan**

Its flanks quivered in the morning sun casting sparkling light through the overgrown grass. Eyes darting, nostrils flaring, it finally put its muzzle to the cold clear water and drank, deciding it must have imagined the noise that was me. I wordlessly cursed myself. I was sloppy, more worn out than I had been willing to admit, and it had almost cost us a week's worth of food if it passed my test. This was the closest I had gotten to one of these things so far. On Earth it would have been from the elk or deer family, four slim and muscular legs, small hooves, long neck, but that was where the similarities ended. It stood taller than me, most of its body covered with downy black fur, but its front legs were outlined at the edges in blazing white. On its head and neck the fur thickened and changed color to a blue so dark it looked indigo. Its horns began as white bony ridges surrounding its eyes and continued back along its skull, fanning out in three sharp prongs each side, the color deepening to a crimson on each point. The horns, coupled with the fact it was alone, made me think male of the species.

I shifted for a better vantage point, staying downwind. This flamin' alien grass amplified every little sound, like walking through strips of aluminum foil. It was now or never and I lunged forward, waiting to pop my claws until the last possible second, aiming for its neck and hoping for a quick, clean kill. It heard me and turned as I struck, catching me with its horns. I roared, felt the tips as they pierced and broke against my adamantium laced ribs. My claws had hit home. Thick blood, salty and hot, poured from its neck as it kept fighting me, hitching and shaking, trying to shove me off its neck. I curled myself around its head, pulled it to the ground with my weight, held it fast as it shuddered against me, flailing in vain, one of its big black eyes staring at me. Two hearts I realized, heard their fluttering beats. They thrummed, failed, stilled. Pulled out my claws and stood, flexed and popped the deer's horn tips out of my torso. The wounds stung, burned. I sniffed the tips, wondering vaguely if they were poisonous. Guess I'd find out.

I hacked off the horns to make it easier to carry the heavy carcass around my shoulders, but grabbed them anyway to show Rogue, thinking maybe she could make some tool or something out of them. She was proving to be pretty damned resourceful with the things we'd stumbled onto so far on this planet.

I needed to skin the animal, let its blood drain and try to cut it up and cook it, eat it before I fed it to her. She would argue, yell at me for eatin' somethin' and puttin' myself at risk again, but how the hell else were we supposed to know what we could eat? Her new thing was she wouldn't lecture me about trying new foods if I would let her absorb my power and eat the unknown alien plant or animal with me. Tit for tat, she said. After my last bought of poisoning, she didn't want me taking any damn chances, but I was sick of eating nuts and grass, and hell if both of us needed to be sick. Better me than her any day of the week. Heh. Day of the week. What day of the week was it? Things like that just seemed to fade further into the background the longer we were here.

Hopefully I could clean this beast without attracting any unwanted visitors. So far hadn't seen much for larger animals besides the deer, but there was probably a predator to match. The wounds where it had stabbed me were itching hot and crazy, sending little jolts of fire along my ribs as they healed and sealed.

I followed Rogue's smell and the sound of trickling water back to camp. Hated leaving her alone while I hunted, but we needed to eat and the girl had as much stealth as a marching band. These damn grasslands seemed to be going on forever, but since we had found the stream there were at least trees here and there along its banks. We had been camping for a couple days next to the creek on a flat slab of sandy soil surrounded by a few trees. I had made a lean-to against one of the trunks, but had decided that unless it was cold or raining I wouldn't bother making a shelter most nights. Took too much time and too many resources, not much for firewood around, and we both seemed to like sleepin' under the stars, even if they weren't technically ours. Looking at them gave us something to talk about when the silence between us got too deep.

I had woken her up before I left, pulled her grumpy ass out of the shelter and gave her the job of stoking the fire to keep her awake and alert until I got back, made her absorb a chunk of my powers for her own damn good. I had been toying with the idea of making her absorb my powers on a regular basis. Would make things easier, she could go longer and faster during the day, and better to be proactive with any injuries. She would fight me on it, but I didn't want another situation with her hurt and unable to absorb me because she was unconscious.

She heard me coming and stood next to the fire as I stomped through the end of the tall grass. "Jesus H. Christ, Logan!" She squealed and covered her eyes with her hands. I chuckled and dropped the deer and its antlers onto the grass at the edge of the sandy ground.

"Something wrong, Rogue?" She just sputtered.

"Why are you…naked!?" Kneeling by my prize, I laughed and rolled my eyes.

"What did you expect? Only have one set of clothes, didn't want 'em to get all bloody. Made too much noise swishing through the grass in jeans and boots anyway." Wasn't like it was the first time she had ever seen me naked for Christ's sake. Never have known her to be real squeamish, either. I had done my damnedest but had still ended up with blood coating my arms, chest and legs, sure I was a real sight. "Left my jeans and flannel hangin' in the tree. Didn't you notice 'em? " She put her hands down and huffed, still not looking at me.

"Obviously not, sugar." I chuckled again. It was a little too fun to get under her skin, but she made it so flamin' easy.

"Got a present for you," I said. She snickered and her face reddened. "Oh, for the love of…cool it!" I growled, still smiling, the sight of that blush making me a little too happy. "I won't make you help me clean this thing, but thought its antlers might interest you." She opened one eye experimentally, then the other, walked toward me with her chin up, looking only at my head. I picked up one rack of the antlers and wiggled it at her. "'Fraid you might see something you like, darlin'?" She scowled and snatched the antlers from me, but I swore I caught her giving me the old 'elevator eyes' before she turned around in her usual huff of hair to sit back by the fire. Now, _that_ sure was interesting. Had my comment hit a little too close to the mark?

I turned my attention back towards my deer. We didn't have any rope, hadn't stumbled on anything we could use for it yet, so I would have to dress my kill on the ground. It would make a flamin' mess, but it wasn't like we'd be camping here for days. I positioned its hooves over its head and started to drag it away from our campsite. If I moved down the creek a little bit it would save a squeamish Rogue the smell, and I could rinse the carcass in the water without messing up today's drinking water.

"Save some of the fat for me," she called over her shoulder. I stopped tugging and looked at the back of her head, confused. She turned a little further, apparently forgetting I was naked. She scowled and closed her eyes.

"For soap, sugar. I can use animal fat and plant ashes to make soap." I'll be damned, I had learned something new today. I nodded and got back to dragging.

Found a good spot in the shade of one of the scraggly river trees and laid the animal on its back. The heat had dried its blood to a crackling crust on my body. I wanted nothing more than to jump in the water of the creek, but there wasn't much point until I was done. I popped a claw and cut it from sternum to crotch, careful not to rupture the sack of guts under its hide. I pulled the guts out of its cavity, cutting the membrane free as I went. They came out in a great gush of black blood. I continued to work, was right about there being two hearts, wondered how much Rogue would freak if I cooked them up for us to eat. I skinned it and hauled it to the creek to rinse and cool it. There was a decent amount of edible meat on the thing. We could cook some for tonight, keep some cool in the stream for tomorrow, but there was more than I had expected. I grunted. In our situation, on the move with no containers or refrigeration, maybe it would be better to stick to smaller game or fish. We could sun dry a bunch for jerky, but even then we could only carry so much. Dammit, I was so freaking hungry. We wouldn't starve thanks to my powers, but those little ass rodents and the few plants I had figured out we could eat just weren't cutting it. I had just wanted a steak, a big fat juicy steak, but now I almost felt flamin' guilty because we were going to end up wasting a good chunk of this beast. If we were staying put it would have been different, we could have smoked some of the meat, found a cooler place to store it, but being on the move…Frustrated, I pulled the carcass out of the water and laid it across some big rocks at the shore, started slicing thin strips for drying. I heard Rogue swishing her way towards me through the grass.

"Need any help, Logan?" she asked, still concentrating her gaze on my face. I plopped a handful of thinly sliced deer onto the rock.

"Nah, no sense you gettin' nasty, too. I don't mind." She nodded and crouched by the deer's hide, running her long fingers through the indigo fur.

"It's beautiful," she whispered. I grunted.

"Hope it tastes beautiful. Deer meat you usually let sit for a couple days before you eat it, lets it flavor through, but we can't exactly do that, it'd spoil in this heat. Hopefully it's not too gamy."

"You're not going to let me eat it tonight, are you?" She raised a questioning eyebrow at me.

"Nope." Not 'til we knew if it made me sick. She chewed her lip like she always did when she was thinking. Thought maybe she was fixin' to argue with me, but instead she took a different track.

"Those antlers are interesting, sugar. They're hollow, but really strong. I hacked into a big rock with the point, made a little bowl. They're real sharp." I snorted.

"Tell me about it. Sucker got me in the ribs before I got it down." I gestured to my bloody side but the marks were long gone, healed.

"Logan!" she gasped and her eyes flashed at me, then snapped away when she caught sight of my naked hairy ass.

I laughed so hard my belly hurt.

**Rogue**

The first thunderstorm we survived caught us with our pants down.

The grasslands we had been beating a path across so far were nothing but open country, a sea of swishing yellow blades that sliced and poked and sang as you walked through them. An occasional stand of trees clumped along the edges of the creek, but they were the exception, not the rule. We could see for miles in every direction, nothing but undulating waves of rolling blades and the wide perfect stretch of sky, a deep shade of peacock blue that intensified to purple on the horizons.

We stopped to rest at the base of the widest tree we had come across so far on our little hike, a sprawling behemoth with branches that spiraled and twisted its thick black leaves skyward, large enough to cast a good shadow. I flopped down in the dirt and leaned my back against its thick knotted trunk, the texture of it felt roughly reptilian. Logan sniffed his way towards the creek like he always did, on a constant mission for water and our next meal. Ordinarily I would be helping him, but I was dirty and gritty and it felt too good in that moment for me to get back up. My bare arms tingled and I looked down to see the last rounds of grass inflicted cuts and scratches sealing up thanks to a bit of borrowed healing factor. It had been dry and warm for weeks, everything now coated with a thin layer of yellowy dust that hovered around us as we moved. Logan, reminding me a little too much of Pigpen from Charlie Brown, sliced his way through the tall blades of grass.

I sighed and closed my eyes. The breeze felt deliciously cool in the shade. I tried to relax, to enjoy a moment that was as sweet as any I had in a long time, but I couldn't stop my mind from wandering its way to things I didn't want to think about. Frankly, I was getting real sick of seeing nothing but grass and the back of Logan's head day in and day out. His master plan left more than a little to be desired. We just walked every day until our feet practically fell off, followed this creek, assuming that it would join with progressively larger bodies of water, maybe leading to some sort of civilization, or, at the least, better shelter and food than we had found in the grasslands. His plan had so many damn flaws I hardly knew where to begin. If there was a civilization, how would we communicate with them? What if it was a planet that had no idea other worlds existed? What if they killed us on sight? All these things and more seemed pretty goddamned likely to me, but as my only plan was to curl up in a hole and wait to be rescued, I didn't get a say.

Hopeless anxiety wound through my nerves, tingled down my arms and legs, settling in a breathless ball in my stomach. I tried to breathe deep to calm myself, but got nothing but shallow constricted gulps. This was my life now. Wandering aimlessly across this plant tangled rock, so far from home that the human race would be long dead before the light pouring from the sun hanging high and red in the sky above me reached the Milky Way. I held my breath for seven counts, breathed out for seven, breathed in for seven, tried to remind myself how much worse it could have been. We could have died in transit, or been horribly injured. We could have been dropped on a world covered in ice, or on a desert world, or a world with food or water or air that didn't support us. I vaguely wondered if maybe Lila's power honed in on inhabitable worlds subconsciously. It could have been worse, I reminded myself again, gripping my hands into fists and relaxing them in time with my breathing. I could have ended up here alone. We could have been separated in transit, or I could have fallen into the portal before Logan grabbed me. I could have died here all alone. Icy fear drove itself into my chest and I gasped, my eyes snapping open. Logan was squatting in front of me, a strange look on his face.

"Hey, darlin', you okay?" I launched myself at him, catching him in a hug that nearly knocked him over. He chuckled and rubbed my back. "All right, it's all right, Rogue." Damn him and his enhanced senses, I was sure he could smell the panic on me from the creek. "Go on, get some water, then we'll move out." He helped me up and took my spot by the tree. I stumbled over the uneven ground towards the bank, crouched by the water and took a long cool drink, rinsing the grit from my face. A school of tiny fish that looked like lacy red diamonds floated nearby, and I watched as they formed shapes and patterns beneath the water's clear surface. As of yet, there hadn't been many fish big enough for us to eat, the water of our stream was a little too shallow to support bigger things on the food chain. Hopefully that'd change as the stream widened out like it was fixing to do.

I shivered, suddenly cold. The air pressure dropped so fast my ears popped. I swore under my breath and opened my jaw, pressing on an ear. My movements startled my underwater friends and they darted away; a flock of sparkly birds rose into the air from the opposite bank.

I stood and stretched, walking back towards Logan, but was hit with a cold stiff wind so hard it pushed me back, swirling around my legs and threatening to flip my dress up and over. Logan was standing with his head cocked to one side, a serious frown etched on his face.

"What?" He held up a hand to quiet me. He stepped from underneath the shade of the tree and I joined him, copying his motion. Beyond the noise of the wind, picking up steam and hissing across the ocean of grass like a snake was a low rumble, a growl building at the edge of my hearing. I tensed. An animal? Or... "Thunder?" My eyes swept the sky, still clear as a bell. Logan pointed towards the horizon.

"There." Where the grass feathered horizon kissed the endless sky the deep purple was starting to swirl wildly, spirals of the royal hue reaching their angry fingers into the calmer teal.

"What is that?" I breathed, though I was pretty sure even without the benefit of Storm's powers that I was looking at this planet's version of a growing thunderstorm. Years ago, when I first joined the X-Men, Ororo Munroe had allowed my young angry self to absorb her weather-controlling abilities to gain a new perspective on life, so I could see how a goddess saw the world. The recollection of what came after that innocent exchange still churned my guts, but the shockingly vivid memories of the visuals her powers gave her of the world have stayed with me over the years. Ororo saw the Earth's systems: the sky, clouds, water, all as swirling patterns of energy that she could use her powers to reshape and manipulate. The newly roiling sky was the closest approximation to emerge in reality I have seen since using Storm's powers firsthand.

"We gotta find cover," Logan grunted and grabbed our jackets, thrusting mine into my hands.

"Cover? We're in the middle of nowhere." He glared at me and pulled my arm forward, away from the coming storm.

"Head for deeper trees or something, we can't be caught in the open." His hackles were raised same as any wild animal. I yanked my arm from his grasp and pointed back at the approaching storm. It was growing exponentially, a colossal purple wall cloud now blanketed the lower half of the sky and the thunder boomed, orange strokes of lightning sizzling in branches of electric veins by the hundreds. Jesus H. Christ, it was like nothing I had ever seen and it was coming our way.

"Trees? Great idea, sugar. Let me get a piece of sheet metal to hold over my head, too." I rolled my eyes and bawled at him over the deafening noise. "That sucker is coming way too fast. I think we're just gonna have to ride it out and get drenched, hope for the best." His face was pissed but I didn't give two shits right then. We weren't going to make it to any shelter, and his goddamned metal bones were going to make him into a walking lightning rod. We needed to make ourselves as small of targets as possible, lay low in a trench or something, hope we didn't get washed away. Be nice if we could find a spot near the tall tree we had been resting by, maybe if the lightning had a bigger target it would strike that instead of my metal soaked friend. The temp dropped twenty degrees in one rip of wind. Moving fast I got ahead of him, started kicking through the grass. I found a little dip, a sort of depression between two gradual hills. I motioned for Logan to join me, the wind and thunder too loud for our voices even with enhanced hearing. It was the middle of the day, but it turned black as night, dust and dirt flying into my eyes and mouth.

When Logan moved towards me, I felt all the hairs on my arm stand on end. I screamed, but a thick bolt of orange electricity snaked horizontally along the ground and caught him in a blinding, smoking flash. The bolt ripped him from the ground and shot him backwards in a shower of sparks that left burning charred grass in his wake. The storm wasn't even to us yet, the lightning was crawling across the ground ahead of the main energy, pulsing from the massive wall cloud like blood through arteries.

I ran after him, jumping over tongues of fire licking their way up the scorched remnants of grass. Please be okay, please be okay! I threw myself to the ground next to his still sizzling body, and bent low to check for a pulse, to see if he was breathing. He wasn't. I started CPR, his lips so hot they singed mine. I pushed on his rock hard chest and smoke poured from his mouth.

"Fuck!" I screamed to no one in particular. The grass was alight, fire spreading quickly from Logan's flight path. He suddenly gasped beneath me, his eyes wide he coughed and sputtered. "Move!" I hissed right in his ear and hauled him to his feet. Best at what he did, time to goddamned prove it! I slung his arm over my shoulder, a detached part of me marveling at how intact his clothing was, but he was disoriented and his heavy ass almost toppled me over. He steadied himself when he caught the scent of burning grass over his own charbroiled behind. The wind was spreading the flames, smoke and embers were flying at us as we ran, our stumbling almost comical. I slapped my own head and screamed as my hair caught fire.

I smelled the dirty thick smell of ozone, heard the storm roar and looked over my shoulder at a wall of impenetrable rain coming our way. It drove into us, hammering us to our knees with its weight. We were soaked to the bone and then some in a heartbeat, barely able to breathe through the buckets of water lashing us. I struggled to get upright, the fire was coming…through the blinding rain we watched the grass fire sputter and mercifully die. I pushed Logan all the way to the ground and shielded him the best I could with my body, praying that the lightning followed the front of the storm and stayed well away from us.

Logan held me tight and the noise and rain abruptly sputtered and died around us like someone had turned off the faucet. I raised up on his chest, blinking at him, completely soaked and bewildered. We both turned and watched the line of rain continue its progression across the grassland. The god damned storm had lasted five whole minutes and drenched us with a day's worth of rain.

"Wham, bam, thank you ma'am," I whispered. If this was an example of this planet's inclement weather, we were fucked.

**Sam**

"You look…like shit…"

I near jumped out of my skin at the sound of her voice. My chair was pushed back against the wall or I probably would have fallen over and cracked open my skull. It had been sixty-five days. I bit back tears and knelt beside her bed. "Hey there, baby girl," I whispered and found her hand among the IV line and sickbay blankets. Her eyes were unfocused slits but she managed a weak smile.

"Wha…happen…?" Her breathing was shallow and she fought the tubes and cords around her mouth. My eyes flicked to the monitors she was wired to.

"Try not to talk, Lila. I'll go get Dr. McCoy." The Beast would rip me a new one if I wore her out or got her too worked up before he had a chance to look her over. I telepathically 'hollered' at Rachel and made to stand up. Lila tugged weakly at my hand.

"Not…yet. Tell me…" She swallowed and tried to lick her cracked lips. I looked around frantically for a water cup, but I didn't even know if she should have water so soon after waking up. Maybe ice chips? She raised her eyelids with effort and her strong will blazed up at me. I hung my head and squeezed her hand with both of mine. I didn't even know where to begin. McCoy was gonna kill me if I laid it all out there for her ten seconds after she woke up, but I'd never been able to say no to her.

Resigned, I exhaled slowly and dove in. "Do you remember anything from that night?" She furrowed her brow and licked her lips again.

"Concert? Started the…first song. Then…nothing…." She looked away from my eyes like she was trying to see something far away, to conjure the memories from the depths of her foggy mind. Her black hair was dark against her wane skin and she had circles under her eyes. Since I had met the woman, she never went without makeup, she even slept in it, but in that moment, her face scrubbed clean, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I took a deep breath. How do you tell somebody that they lost two months of their lives because a fanatical human supremacist organization had wanted to turn you into a walking bomb?

"Where…am I, Sam?" she asked faintly.

"You're at the school, in Westchester, Lila." I ran my thumb over the knuckles of her small, cold hand. "You were attacked at your concert. A group called the Purifiers wanted to make an example of your very public mutant status and teach you a lesson, I guess. They tried to use you and your powers to cause a big accident." Her eyes widened and her heart monitor blipped. I expected McCoy to barrel in the door any second but Rachel still hadn't answered my mental SOS. "It's okay, girl. We stopped them from doing exactly what they wanted to do. Only, there were too many of them, and they hurt you anyway, real bad. You've been…recovering." She turned her face from me and stared at the ceiling.

"Recovering…" She chewed on the word, rolled it around in her mouth. "What do you…mean? How long…" She turned her face back towards me; I reached out with my hand and smoothed the dark fringe of bangs that had flopped into her eyes. "Guthrie?" She was weak and exhausted, but there was steel in her tone.

"Sixty-five days, Lila. You've been unconscious for sixty-five days." Her lips quivered as that tidbit sunk in, but the number was so much deeper than that, there was so much pain and worry and heartache in those two digits. So much time, and yet the X-Men were still practically nowhere in their search, with nothing to show for the sacrifices we had made.

The team had their hands full investigating new attacks on mutants, all while searching for a sample of 'Surge', which the Beast needed to further his study. My powers were painfully spotty at best and I was still on inactive duty, but I made it a point to be kept in the loop. I had been doing what I could, what I was allowed to do in my 'condition', which amounted to searching databases for information on possible targets and coordinating the team's missions. McCoy still had no clue of the drug's long-term effects, though if my powers were any indication the prognosis for any potential injected mutant was grim.

A small strike team, consisting mostly of Gambit and Storm, had been taking the fight to the Purifiers and hitting known installations in search of information, of anything that could help us get to our friends. It was frustrating, watching the team just spin their wheels and not being able to help. We all knew that no matter what we did to the Purifiers, it was all pointless without Lila. Gambit and Storm were actually due to head out later that night to chase a new lead. My job had been to handle communications and to monitor government satellites and military frequencies in case of trouble.

Lila was silent for a few minutes, and I just kept holding her hand and touching her face. I was so goddamned happy she was awake. I knew she'd be slow recovering after so long in a coma, and who knew if her powers were like mine or worse, but we'd take it one day at a time. She'd get better and then she'd help us find our friends. She blinked rapidly at me and tried to sit up.

"Oh, no you don't. I'm calling McCoy, should have ten minutes ago," I said and stood. I yelled again for Rachel in my mind, but got no response. I reached for the call button on the wall behind her bed.

"No, wait," she put as much force and air into the command as she could and I stilled my hand. "You said… 'We stopped them….from doing _exactly_…what they wanted." She raised her eyes to me in confusion. "What did you…mean…'exactly'?" Ahhh, hell. I ran a hand through my shaggy hair.

"Meaning…you still got hurt," I mumbled, but couldn't look at her. 'Exactly' meant those bastards hadn't been able to turn her into a living bomb and suck thousands of people into a gigantic swirling intergalactic portal, but they had still managed to use her to spirit away two X-Men. The last thing I wanted was to unload a whole helping of the guilt I'd been feeling on her plate after she just woke up. She narrowed her eyes to slits.

"You're such a …bad liar, Guthrie. Quit…stalling." I screwed up my face and jabbed my finger angrily at the call button, but instead of the cold metallic ring of the speaker, the Beast's rumbling baritone echoed from the doorway.

"Oh my stars and garters!" Dr. McCoy and his lab coat filled the doorway. He entered, and I saw Rachel peeking in behind him. "Welcome back, Ms. Cheney." He came towards the bed and edged me out of the way, but the look he gave me spoke volumes. "Mr. Guthrie, if you would extricate yourself to the corridor so I may examine our guest sans your well-meaning, yet overbearing facade?"

I squeezed her hand and stepped back, relieved at their good-timing. Lila's eyes followed mine pleadingly. "I'll be right outside, Lila. Dr. McCoy will take good care of you, sweetheart." Her small smile said we would be finishing our conversation later.

The door slid shut behind me and Rachel was waiting for me in the corridor. "Sorry we weren't down here faster, Sam. I was teaching a class in the furthest out soccer field, and Beast was in a teleconference with Tony Stark."

"Fast enough. She was asking things I really didn't know how to answer." She patted my shoulder reassuringly.

"All you have to do is tell her the truth, Sam. She'll appreciate you not trying to protect her feelings with something this big." She grimaced. "But, maybe give her a few days."

I snorted. "You don't know Lila very well, do you? Just a like a dog gnawing at a bone…" She smiled warmly at me and squeezed my shoulder before removing her hand. We stood in silence for a few minutes and I leaned against the wall. "Can you tell if her powers are…you know...?"

She shook her head "Can't tell yet, at least not from a casual scan. Figured I had better get the okay from Hank before I went with anything deeper. Or get the okay from Lila for that matter. It might be nice to explain things before I go digging around in her brain. I know everyone's anxious for us to move on this, but they're going to have to give her time. It's a process."

I nodded in agreement. There were going to be more than a few X-Men, mainly Gambit, who would be pushing for information out of Lila ASAP.

"You're playing telephone on the mission tonight?" Rachel asked, picking up on my train of thought. I nodded again. "You've got a lot on your plate all of a sudden, Sam. Do you want me to take over? You could fill me in pretty easily."

"No," I shook my head and pursed my lips. "No thanks, Rachel. Running the war room during these snatch and grab missions has been the only solid thing I've been able to contribute since I got hurt. I'm sure you and Doc will keep Lila busy most of the evening and then she probably will need to rest." What I didn't voice aloud was that I needed this, to help, to do something against the sons of bitches that hurt us, but standing next to a telepath, I didn't really need to say anything at all.


	5. Chapter 5

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

**Rogue**

Some days we didn't talk at all. We moved fast, following the stream through fields of waving yellow grass that looked as if it had been cut by pinking shears, steadily moving from the occasional trees to slowly thickening clumps. He pushed us, hard, everyday sunup to nearly sundown. That I could handle, that I expected from him, but I hadn't expected how overprotective he was acting. Worse than that, since our first days here he had become a healing factor Nazi.

"Can't afford to have you hurt," he rationalized anytime I rolled my eyes at him. He would just hold out his hand until I took a nip of his powers. He had been right, blast him, but I was real sick of people thinking I couldn't survive on my own merits.

"How long can you hold onto my powers?" he asked one night early on by the fire, camping along the bank of our new friend the stream. I shrugged and tried to ignore the haunted house noises rippling towards us through the grass. With the high octane life we had been leading our last few months on Earth, there hadn't really been time to test my limits. Charles would have been ashamed that one of his students had been so lax in her training.

"Varies, or seems to. Depends on how powerful the powers I borrow are, how much I have to use them, stress I'm under when I'm using them, stuff like that."

He grunted and grabbed for my hand. "Danger Room's in session."

God damn it annoyed me, but we figured out that with normal wear and tear, which for us was hiking in the elements over rocks and pushing through thick grassland and weeds for at least twelve hours a day with little food, water, or sleep, I could stretch my borrowing of his powers to about four hours. If there was a major injury I was healing, we theorized it would lessen the time I held onto his powers. Thankfully, he wasn't looking to test that little hypothesis. Yet. But that son of a bitch made me absorb him five or six times a day like I was taking medication. Even woke me up in the middle of the night to do it. First night he did that, I was fit to be tied.

"You've got to be effing kidding me, Logan," I hissed. I had been sleeping deep, finally. For the first few weeks, the alien smells and sounds brought into high definition by his enhanced senses had kept me on high alert like a scared little rabbit. I couldn't sleep on the uncomfortable ground, I was hot and gritty during the day, cold and tired and hungry in the dark. My dreams when I did sleep were warm cocoons of home and bubble baths and pumpkin spice lattes, of silky Cajun accents with smoldering red on black eyes. I almost didn't want to sleep because I didn't want to dream anymore, to wake to the desperation that was our current situation. Luckily for me, after a week of Logan's boot camp hikes I practically fell into a coma every night from exhaustion, his forced healing factor be damned. Perfect thing, those body draining torture sessions: deep sleep, no dreams.

"What if something attacks us in the night?" He knelt next to me in the waning firelight and his eyes were worried, but there was something else, an almost wistful quality to his stare. He insistently grabbed my hand.

"You gonna spank me if I say no?" I smirked, but he growled. He looked for a second like he was actually considering it and I felt a lecture about my disagreeable attitude coming, so I gave in. Now, we shared his power. I don't know if my skimming his was reducing his ability to heal or if it was blunting his senses, but according to him it wasn't. I guess he would know best and decided to keep my mouth shut to preserve the peace between us. Better safe than sorry on the injury front, and his healing factor meant I could walk longer and push harder with less recovery. Also helped with any sunburns, although this planet seemed wilder than the Earth in so many ways, no industrialized pollution that we had been able to spot that would have stripped away the atmosphere's natural sun protection. We were definitely lucky so far in terms of temperature, some chilly nights, but days sultry like summer, hot enough for an ol' Mississippi gal like me.

It was always so overwhelming to get a big shot of Logan's enhanced senses, but living with them on a daily basis was frightening. Everything around us was so strange already: animals, plants, trees, sky, his senses immersed me in them in ways I never wanted. The…details of everything we encountered were just a little off. It was like someone had described the elements of the Earth to an alien sketch artist, and they had drawn a tree without ever seeing one in person. Hard to describe, I know, but that's the way it all looked to me. Familiar, yet completely different. Leaves attached to trees in different spiraling configurations, bark weird patterns and textures. Things that should have been green were skewed a little blue or yellow. Rocks that looked rough felt smooth as silk, striped through with all the colors of the rainbow. An alien world in Wizard of Oz Technicolor.

Logan was right in that most of the animals were staying away from us. He seemed to put out a pretty solid predatory vibe that, so far, nothing felt the need to challenge. Didn't know how long that would last. Closer we got to the thick of the woods gathering on the horizon mustier, pungent animal smells rolled over us on the breeze like fog. Birds and bugs floated overhead and in the trees, but the smaller rodent-like animals and reptiles scattered whenever we came near. I could hear them gnawing at the edges of our path, watching, their scared little hearts thrumming. We had hunted a few of the little critters, a paranoid Logan still eating everything himself before he would let me practically even smell them.

"Are you gonna act like my royal taste-tester until we're rescued?" I joked when he grabbed what looked like a purple freckled carrot from me and sniffed it. "Come on, what's the point of making me take your power if you stop me from using it?"  
He snapped off a huge bite, reminding me stupidly of Bugs Bunny, chewed thoughtfully and swallowed. "Not bad. Sort of like a carrot, but sweeter, maybe more like a squash or something? Pick a few and stuff them in your purse. Don't eat any 'til tomorrow, that should give us a good judge if they're toxic. Hopefully not, they seem to be growing all along the stream as it's been widening out. And you only take a little of my power at a time, so I eat it all first."

He got more and more tense the closer we stepped towards the forest. We were still a long walk from it, but I could smell the fear on him, the worry that soon something big and nasty wouldn't run from him but run straight for him. Following the stream as it rolled on was becoming a challenge. Near any substantial stands of trees it had started to cut down into deepening craggy bluffs that we had to tiptoe along the top of. Where the trees thinned there were soft sandy shores where we could wade in and wash and fish. The small rodents and birds we had been hunting tasted okay, but they took a lot of energy to catch. If we were stationary, I could have set up snares or traps or something, but mainly we just fished for our supper. It was easy, we were following the stream as closely as we could anyway and the fish had become more available the further we walked. I shuddered to think what we would have done if he hadn't found our water source, our whole lives were coming to revolve around it. We actually didn't even stink too badly, all things considered. A half-naked dunk into icy water wasn't my preference, but it was better than being coated in my own filth.

We weren't able to carry a ton of stuff with us. I kicked myself daily for not grabbing my bigger purse the night of Lila's concert, we could have used one to carry more a whole lot easier than my tiny bag, but at least we had that. I had made a knife and some spear points out of the deer antlers and had those and some food stuffed inside the purse. For now, Logan had been doing most of the fishing with his claws, but we were constantly on the lookout for found items we could MacGyver to another purpose. I had resisted using the bone claws I got from him on a regular basis. Popping them was painful and would use more of his healing factor, which would only make him make me absorb him more.

We were walking out of the thickest grass for the moment, and my hands feathered through the long pale plants growing sparsely out of the edge of the stream bank. I absently tugged on a river reed of some sort that looked like stretched soft grass as we passed by, but I couldn't easily tear it. I paused and knelt down to examine a long blade, found it was supple yet sturdy, folded in on itself like an accordion pleat. I unfolded it and realized it was as wide as my forearm was long. Worth messing with, maybe I could weave some pieces together and make something. I dug out my antler knife and worked to slice down a handful of neighboring plants.

"Let's get movin', there's still daylight," Logan called back to me, a strange look in his eyes. There was a worried edge to his voice, probably because I was out of sight. Or…my heightened hearing picked up a low rumble and I scanned the sky the best I could. The sky above us was clear, but the horizon was too blotted out by the clump of trees we had spent the morning slogging through to spot anything coming over the plains. The thought of thunder sent cold fear to the pit of my stomach. I shivered and picked up the pace to join him.

**Logan**

Some days she wouldn't shut up. You'd think that would piss me off, but I actually looked forward to those days. Her blabbing about the scenery or old missions meant she was herself, in as good a mood as she was gonna be. It was the days she didn't talk that worried me, when the smell of sadness and panic lay thick on her. I tried my best to keep her animated, to keep her moving.

It had been a long damned while since we had spent any amount of time alone together. I had drug her with me from the X-Men to the Avengers because I was worried about her after Charles' death, and, if I was bein' truthful with myself, because I wanted her there. Me and her made a good team. I had wanted her to have her shot with the big boys, and was damned proud that she had stepped up. It had also been my form of an apology to her. I had been a pretty big asshole to her before we had left Earth, and the reason why followed us like an elephant, daring us not to talk about it. About him. Fuck it, I ain't ever been one to shy away from sensitive subjects, so on one of her silent days I plunged in.

"Why'd you dump Gumbo and jump right into Magneto's bed?" I asked after she hadn't uttered a single word all goddamned day. I knew it was crass and more than a little cruel, but that's me. World's biggest dickhead. I was definitely trying to get a rise out of her, sue me, but I also wanted, needed to know. I had let her failed relationship with Magneto cause a big rift between us, and rather than deal with what it had done to the two of us, I had just ignored it, hoping my feelings of betrayal would go away. I refused to let that self-righteous son of a bitch come between us anymore, especially when he was half a universe away. She stopped and glared at me and I stopped too, crossed my arms over my chest and waited.

"You want to do this now?" she asked, her voice as icy as Bobby Drake even in the blazing heat. It was a warm day and she was stripped down to her dress with her jacket and leggings tied around her waist, hair falling from her ponytail in sweaty tendrils down her face. I just stared back at her. "You're an asshole," she growled and stalked off into the grass. I followed behind her angry steps. We were far away from trees today and a lazy dragonfly-lookin' thing the size of a sparrow drifted by on rainbow checkered wings. For the most part the bugs had left us alone; we must not have smelled right to them. They didn't smell right to me, either.

She spun in front of me, all riled up. "For the record, Remy dumped me," she said through gritted teeth. I stopped again and tried not to watch her breasts heaving under that little dress as she worked to control her temper. No doubt about it, she was a beautiful girl, god dammit, a beautiful woman, but never more so than when she was angry. It was one of the oldest cliches, but absolutely true for her, all that fiery passion made her face flush, her eyes ferocious. I didn't want to notice things like that, but she was makin' it hard not to more and more lately. I needed to get ahold of myself. I had been watching her like a starving man watched a steak and it wasn't fair to her.

I started walking again and steered around her blocking my path. "Is that it?" I asked, conjuring up my best bastard sneer. "You needed a pity fuck?" I heard her mouth snap open behind me. "If that was all it was, I'm sure Drake would have been on his knees for the chance. Or, hell, you could have come to me anytime, my room was right down the hall." Her and me together, I wasn't sure what to do with that right now, though the animal in me stirred a little too much at the thought. But I would have put on a French maid's uniform and done cartwheels for her if it would have kept her away from Magneto. I figured that my comments would have had her yelling and throwing punches at me, was kind of hoping it would, anything was better than her moping and dragging her legs through the day. We needed to have this out and leave it behind us, and if she wasn't willing to talk about it I was gonna' drag her through it kicking and screaming.

I stopped and turned towards her, ready with another snarky line, but guilt floated in my stomach at the devastated look on her face. Why had that son of a bitch Magneto gotten under her skin so badly? As far as I knew, their first little encounter in the Savage Land hadn't been much of anything, how did he still have such a hold on her? She was better than that, deserved better than that. Gumbo, I could take. If I had to. Gambit was an idiot most of the time and a huge man-whore, but he really loved her and they were good for each other, most days. Magneto was a controlling egotistical maniac who manipulated everyone he had ever come into contact with. He had to have been using her. She was a hot piece of ass to him and she had let him…had begged him to…

"I thought out of everyone, Logan, you would understand," she said sadly. Angry bile rose in my throat as I thought of them together, of his hands on her. I stalked back towards her.

"Understand? Understand what? That you spread your legs for the bastard that ripped the metal out of my fucking bones? How could you do that to me? He nearly killed me! I thought we were friends, no, more than that, you were my family!" I got in her face, the rage and betrayal I had felt for so long gushing out of me, hot and angry. "How could you degrade yourself with that monster?" She stared unblinking, and her cold, calm demeanor pulled me back to myself.

"Figured you'd understand, Logan. Understand what it was like to want something so bad with your body even when your mind knew it was wrong. To know deep down that what you wanted would make a huge mess of everything and hurt everyone, but to not be able to control the animal impulse inside you." Her comment choked out my rage and I took a step back from her. She walked forward and shoved me harder than I expected in the chest with the flat of her hands. "How fucking dare you! It's none of your goddamned business who I share my bed with! You hypocritical mother fucker! If it had been you, if it had been someone that you wanted, if Jean-fucking-Grey had come to you and told you everything you ever wanted to hear, you would have taken her and not given a good goddamn what anyone else thought or felt! She was married and it didn't even stop you!"

I was trying to get a word in edgewise, but she wouldn't even stop for a fucking breath. "… And don't try to tell me that it was different with the two of you, that you had this great unrequited love affair, it's all bullshit and you know it! I'm a grown woman with no obligations to you or anyone, I shouldn't have to explain my actions to you. Did I love Erik? Hell no, but I was attracted enough to him to be curious, and, goddammit, I was lonely! That whole mess with Moira completely turned all of us inside out and after, when I needed him, Remy dumped me like yesterday's trash! I was angry and scared and confused, and Erik was there and he _wanted _me! And it felt good to be wanted! Did he take advantage of me? Yes! Did I take advantage of him? Hell, yes! Was it selfish of me to give in to my impulse, my needs like some kind of animal? Maybe it was, but don't you dare make me feel guilty for something that you make a habit of!"

She stalked off into the grass and I followed. Maybe silence wasn't so bad sometimes.

**Sam**

_"I've got a lock on them, Sam!"_

Oh, sweet baby Jesus. I leaned back from the console and put my hands over my face. Exhaling slowly, I wiped the sweat away from my eyes and stared at the cold dim lights of the War Room's monitors. Hank's paw felt heavy on my shoulder. Gambit and Storm's mission had started smooth as silk, in and out of the facility with no Purifier the wiser, but I should have known it was too good to be true. When it came to the X-Men, a lucky break was sometimes too much to hope for.

"Find what we were after?" I had asked through my headset. The radar was up in the War Room, and I was manning my station like I had been on every one of their strikes, watching for anything suspicious and tracking the Blackbird's progress home. Our jet was sophisticated enough to hide from conventional radar and sensors, but the school's appropriated Shi'ar technology made for a decidedly different world view, enabling me to keep an eye on them. The two X-Men had maintained radio silence since they had initially landed, but had kept their com channels open to allow me to eavesdrop on what was happening. Once they were done and airborne, they didn't get much chattier.

"It's…promising, mon ami." I could practically hear Gambit smirking over the airwaves. I had been coordinating most of our strikes against the Purifiers, getting the intel, scouting satellite photos, planning our routes, but this facilities' discovery and subsequent hit had happened courtesy of Gambit's connections with the New Orleans' Thieves Guild. I near climbed out of my skin in frustrated glee.

"Seriously? Don't play with me here! Did you get a sample?" I tried to keep from sounding like an overexcited idiot, but for months these little missions had gotten us squat. Everyone's nerves were wearing thin with worry for our friends. My powers were still touchy, but the main concern was Lila's non-existent teleportation powers. Like me, she was unable to access her abilities without exquisite amounts of pain. Beast was trying his best, but without a sample of whatever they had injected us with, he was pretty much stuck.

"We will discuss it upon landing, Samuel." Ororo's normally calm voice also seemed to have a huge grin tugging at the edges. "Let us not get ahead of ourselves."

"O'course, cherie. Wouldn't dream of it." Gambit said smugly. "Y'just remember where this tip came from, make sure you tell that Wolverine who it was that saved his ass." My heart jumped into my throat, and I fought the urge to jump on top of my chair and pump my fists in the air. My good mood was shattered into a thousand pieces of anger and panic when the alarm on my monitors started going like gangbusters.

"Storm, you guys have company. Two hostiles, coming up fast out of nowhere!" Not there one second, right on their tail the next, two blips smaller than the jet but closin' at speeds our craft couldn't dream of.

"We see them," Storm's voice was all business. "Can you tell us what…?" An explosion shredded my eardrum through the headset. I screamed and smacked it off my face, frantically pounding the keys on the radar feed, swallowing panic, trying to get a sense of what had just happened. I scooped up the headset and screamed for Rachel at the top of my mental lungs while I screamed for Storm and Gambit through the garbled static.

"Answer me, dammit!" The Blackbird was gone, obliterated from the screen, but in the next sweep the feed went absolutely crazy, and I couldn't pick out a blasted thing. Panicked, I switched to SHIELD's view, then to some of the standard Earth radars and satellites, did a double-take when I hit the Weather-Channel's. Right over the Midwest, where the jet had last been, sat a swirling vortex of angry thunderheads laced with strokes of lightning. Sweet Jesus, let that be Ororo's doing I prayed, gritting my teeth to keep myself from throwing up.

_ "I'm scanning with cerebro now, Sam. Hank is on his way."_ For once, Rachel's intrusion into my mind was a welcome one. I knew she wouldn't stop until she found them. Hank barreled through the War Room's thick bunker doors, his face all wide eyes and pointed teeth.

"Sam?" I got up and gestured for him to take my seat.

"Mission was done, they were clear and in the air." I cued up a replay of the radar and satellite sequences complete with the audio feed. "Two bogeys came out of nowhere and then, boom, nothing!" I clicked to the weather satellite. "Well, almost nothing." The vortex had grown. My grim eyes met their mirror in his.

Hank turned to the screens, and his big furry fingers stabbed the keys. "The computers were unable to identify where the contacts originated?" I nodded and gestured to another window on the screen.

"Even fed the data into the Avengers' computer, SHIELD's database, too. Nobody can tell me where the hell they came from." Taking his glasses off and cleaning them on his lab coat, Hank frowned in the dim greenish glow of the computers.

"And yet, at least Ororo must have survived. The storm raging in place of the Blackbird is clearly not a natural phenomenon, and seems to be strengthening rather than weakening. One could extrapolate her powers as the likely source of said phenomenon." He settled his glasses low on his nose like Dumbledore, and focused on the data rolling down the screen. We settled in and scoured every available scrap of satellite information and security camera footage in the northern hemisphere while Rachel gave herself a headache trying to make a connection. Gambit was damn near impossible to pin down telepathically, or so every mind reader ever on the team had told me, and Storm's mind could be just as closed off. It was two hours before Rachel found them, another three before the pair of them floated onto the grounds of the school, scorched and exhausted. It was damn near sunrise and we hurried them into the lower depths of the school and straight into sickbay before the students could see, an injured Gambit supported between Storm and Beast. Rachel had gone to help the other teachers with the school's morning traffic.

"Ahhhh." Gambit hissed in pain as Storm slipped out from under his arm and helped him onto the examination table. His black bodysuit had been burned away over half of his chest, the flesh underneath ashy and scorched. They were both bruised, battered, and scraped.

"Lie back carefully, Remy. I'm going to have to cut away your uniform in order to get a better look at your wounds." Remy groaned and let Ororo support him as he leaned back. I scrambled to put together a tray and handed Hank his surgical scissors.

Gambit grunted while Hank started cutting. "For the record, I'm not the one taking my shirt off." Storm smiled weakly and held one of her wrists awkwardly to her chest as she backed away. I pulled a chair up for her, close enough to Remy to hold his hand if she wanted but far enough away to give Hank room to work. It was easy to forget how close Storm and Gambit had always been. He had followed her to the X-Men all those years ago, but until the recent crisis they didn't spend much time together as far as I knew. The panicked look on her normally calm face spoke volumes for the emotions beneath the surface of the usually serene goddess.

"Here, Ororo, let me see." My field training thanks to the man Cable kicked in, and I gestured towards her wrist. She grimaced and held it out for me. Her uniform had charred patches as well, her snow white hair singed black in some places, but it looked like Gambit had taken the brunt of whatever had happened to them. "Looks like a sprain. I'll wrap it up for you."

"Thank you, Samuel." Her blue cat-like eyes flicked towards Hank. "You are being unnervingly quiet, Henry." Hank moved to the supply cabinet and came back with an armload of gauze and gels.

"Merely admiring the view of our defrocked friend, Ororo." Gambit snorted and then winced in pain when Beast resumed treatment. "These burns appear to be extensive, second degree and fairly deep. I should be able to numb the pain, but you will want to stay as immobilized as possible for the foreseeable future. I'll do what I can to prevent scarring, but the possibility exists." He grimaced at Gambit. "Sorry, my friend, but this is going to hurt like the proverbial Dickens." Gambit nodded and reached out for Ororo's hand. Beast and I set about the slow and torturous business of cleaning the large patch of blistering burns that crisscrossed his chest and torso. Remy bit his lip so hard I saw blood, but the man didn't make a peep.

When Beast was done, he looked approvingly at the wrap job I had done on Ororo's wrist. "Well done, Samuel. Perhaps you should teach a first aid course to the students." I wasn't in the mood for his well-meaning banter. I was thanking God my friends were safe, but inside I was crushed. All that damned work to move against the Purifiers down the drain, we were back at square one. My anger must have shown, never really had what you called a great poker face. Gambit smiled up at me lopsidedly.

"What?" I asked, exhaustion tearing my temper apart. He winked at Ororo.

"Had this dramatic reveal all planned out, but can't stand seeing you with such a sad face, mon ami." He painfully reached into a pocket on the outer thigh of his uniform and produced a small liquid filled vial. "Did someone say, 'Best X-Man Ever'?" He grinned and my jaw dropped.

"Son of a bitch," I whispered and had to steady myself on the edge of his bed. Gambit laughed so loud he barked and held his side in pain, handing the sample to a flabbergasted Hank.

"What? How?" Beast sputtered and just stared at the tiny glass cylinder now in his big furry paw.

"The best indeed, Remy. You have even managed to render Henry speechless." Ororo patted his hand.

"Told you we'd get it," Gambit said smugly, still grinning ear to ear.


	6. Chapter 6

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

**Rogue**

"Would you stop that flamin' humming?"

"What?" I had been spacing out pretty hard as we walked, lost in the smells and colors around me. Logan glared at me and stopped. The stream was rolling through, big surprise, more fields of grass today, a low, flat break between two small forested areas. The sun was beating down on us and he stepped towards the water's edge to grab a drink.

"Humming. Stop humming. You're drivin' me crazy." He cupped the clear water with his hands and took a long swallow. I joined him and rinsed the sweat from my face.

"Sorry, sugar. Didn't know I was." He snorted and copied my move, scrubbing his face with the cool water.

"You do. A lot. Sometimes you actually sing under your breath."

"Oh." Well, that was a little embarrassing. I always had a song going full blast in my head, but apparently it wasn't staying there. It didn't surprise me though. I missed music. Desperately. Hell, I missed pretty much everything if I really let myself think about it, but music was something that I took for granted, something that I had woven into the background of my every waking moment. Woke up to music, showered to music, drove to music, trained to music, danced in front of the mirror to music, drums seemed to follow me through each day like my own heartbeat.

I tried to keep focused, to keep moving just like Logan said, but the overwhelming, overly emotional fact was I wanted to go home. Now. I wanted a hot shower and a change of clothes and coffee and a warm bed with soft sheets and I wanted, no, needed to blast my music and dance and sing at the top of my lungs until my throat turned itself inside out. I had a few of my favorite songs loaded on my phone, not many as it was my Avengers' business phone, but Logan had glared at me and muttered something about keeping the racket down so the animals didn't come after us every time I tried to play anything. Figured I'd save the battery anyhow. My Stark phone had a solar charging panel that was still working with the alien sun, but I was preparing for the day it went totally dead. At least my phone wasn't like a normal smart phone that needed the cloud to save its files. I tried to save looking at my pictures for the days I really needed them. I smiled sheepishly at Logan.

"Sorry, like I said, didn't realize I was doing it." He grunted.

"Well, you are. Stop it." He got back up and waited for me before we started walking. "We need to look for a place to make camp," he said, all business. "Sun's starting to set. We're not gonna make it to the next group of trees by nightfall." We picked up the pace and walked for hours in silence.

"Don't you miss it?" I blurted out, wishing I could swallow the words back as soon as they passed my lips.

"Miss what?" He popped his claws and cut a wide angry swath through some of the taller grass barring our way.

"Home." My whisper came out sadder than I had wanted. I was drowning in a bucket of homesick, and he acted like we were on a fucking camping trip. Maybe it was too personal of a question, cut him too deep. He had been keeping his verbal distance since I ripped back at him about Erik, maybe we weren't friends anymore. Our conversations had been real limited, like on a need only basis for days, and I was sick of it. I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow at him.

"What? You looking for me to spill my guts, start blubberin' about Ororo, or about driving my Harley or the school? Sorry, Rogue. Not my style, no point in makin' yourself crazy over what you can't change. Nothin' I can do about gettin' home right now anyway, just gotta keep goin' every day, one foot in front of the other." Inspirational speeches from Wolverine. Just great.

"Don't you miss _anything_?" I whispered sadly, willing my mind away from the feel of the rough stubble on Remy's chin, his hair sliding through my fingers. I had been counting the days here, but the number was so high now that it made me physically ill to think about it. He grunted again and went back to cutting the tall grass.

"Beer."

"Beer?" You had to be effing kidding me. That's what I got for trying to have a real conversation with the man.

"Beer." I rolled my eyes and angrily shut my mouth.

We settled for the night in a patch of the taller grass we cleared next to the river bank. There were some larger rocks along one edge and after we ate and cleaned up, I leaned back against them to watch the fire. Some of the wood we had found changed the colors of the flames to blues and greens, just like a driftwood fire back home. The colors danced and crackled and I had to drag my mind back again from thoughts of family and friends. Logan stretched out beside me, laced his hands behind his head.

"So…" his voice broke hours of silence, "what do _you_ miss most, Rogue?" I glared at him, anger boiling hot in my throat.

"Thought you didn't want to talk about things we couldn't change."

"I don't want to talk about it, but you do. You need to, it's botherin' you so bad I can smell it." I sighed. His flippant dismissal of the conversation earlier had really pissed me off, but I didn't want to fight with him anymore today. Our verbal tussles were exhausting.

"Logan, you don't have to…"

"Now, goddammit, don't be like that. You wanted a serious conversation, let's have a serious conversation. I'm not asking for my health here, I'm asking because I care, goddammit." That was a lot of goddammit. Surprised he hadn't thrown an 'Anna' in there for good measure. I pursed my lips and played along.

"Truthfully? I miss _everything_, but that's just too much for my brain to handle all at once. I've had to divide it into categories: the big things and the little things. What I miss the most, like, the _one_ big thing? I can't talk about that, can't let myself feel that. But the little things? Kind of depends on the day, sugar. Some days it's a hot shower, some days clean underwear. But today? Today, I miss music the most."

"Music?"

"Yeah. You called me out on that one. Humming, singing? The noise, the rhythm... music helps me think, it helps me cope. It makes me happy, makes me sad. This place, it's just too quiet." I shivered. He turned towards me.

"Quiet? You need another dose of my power, girl? So flamin' loud on this planet, I can't sleep most nights."

"That kind of noise, it's different than music. I don't know how to explain it to you, I guess." I sighed and dropped my hands helplessly into my lap. "I know you're not really a music guy." It was absolutely true. All these years we'd been friends, family, and I'd never seen him buy an album or flip on the radio. Even riding in his jeep, I was the one who would tune in a station. He got up and rummaged through my bag, producing my phone.

"What's the password?" He asked over his shoulder.

"7369." I replied. REMY on a phone keypad. His look told me I wasn't as clever and sneaky about that as I thought. I got up and walked towards him as he flipped through my phone. He was smiling in the dim light of the screen.

"What are you…?" The tiny speakers reverberated the acoustic drenched opening to 'Stardust', the Willie Nelson version. I swallowed and tears stung my eyes.

"You told me not to play that thing." He put my phone in the breast pocket of his flannel shirt and stepped towards me.

"Thought we could make an exception tonight." He tilted my chin upwards. I was taller than him, but it seemed like I always had to look up to see him. "Your favorite, right?" I smiled, touched that he remembered. It had probably been years since I mentioned the song.

"All right, then." He put his arm around my waist and pulled me up against him, laughed at the dumbstruck look on my face. "How about a dance, Anna?" He held his other hand out for me to take.

"My pleasure, sugar." We waltzed in the dim, dusty firelight, swaying contentedly in each other's arms.

**Logan**

They had been marking us for days, keeping their distance, staying downwind. When we were in the trees, the smaller forested areas that had begun popping up along the river, they were nowhere to be seen. As soon as we exited, there they were, cutting through the grasslands and headin' us off, gauging our speed and abilities. They were good, no god damned doubt about it, but I was the best, could smell them when they were near. So could Rogue, I bet, if she knew what it was she was smellin'. There were still just two of them for now, big black cats the size of a mountain lion, muscular and sleek except for the row of spikes running up the ridge of their backs. Didn't say anything to Rogue, didn't want to spook her, especially when I wasn't sure what they wanted. Sometimes I lost sight of them as we walked, but I felt them keeping tabs on us. Maybe they wanted us for breakfast, or maybe we had just wandered into their territory and they were escorting us out. Didn't want to assume predatory instincts were a universal thing, though it seemed pretty flamin' likely. My guts said to get us the hell away from them as fast as I could, stand and fight only if we had to. No reason to seek out trouble when we could easily be outnumbered.

I pushed Rogue hard to keep ahead and away from them, keeping a closer watch on her than normal. From the looks of our environment the grasslands were going to completely disappear at a point real soon, givin' way to solid trees. If I could get us there, we should be well away from our feline shadows. 'Til that point, I was up in her business day in day out, which she didn't let last very long. She whirled on me in a cloud of hair when I tried to follow her into some bushes.

"Hey!" She stopped me in my tracks by smacking me in the chest with the palm of her hand. "Little privacy, please!" She was fuming and squinting in the sun. Made me feel a little bad, I had apparently dropped her sunglasses dragging her from the teleportation site during our first few hours here. Who the hell brought sunglasses to a nighttime concert?

"You never know, sugar," she had said when I asked. "Show started at night, but I was ready to party 'til the break of dawn." She had winked at me; I blamed the Cajun's influence. I grunted at her hand in the middle of my chest.

"Don't go too far." I warned and she crashed off into the grass, mumbling.

"I'll go as far as I need to, thank you very much…" she said under her breath as she stomped away. At this point, we were beyond the early awkwardness of having to answer the call of nature around each other. Didn't bother me, but I was used to livin' in the wild. Rogue was real skittish. Like I didn't know women crapped for god's sake. Didn't want her to hurt herself holding it in or something stupid. She got over it real fast.

I hadn't wanted to bring up any…female…things with her, but we really didn't need any more surprises or complications. I just flat-out asked her one day after being here a couple months, asked her if we needed to find something for her to use. She had been rinsing my tank top out that day in the stream that had become a river. She stopped and blinked at me.

"What are you…?" Realization dawned on her face and she blushed a little and stifled a laugh. "Oh. My period? Is that what you're asking about, sugar?" I cleared my throat and ran a hand through my hair. Couldn't believe I had brought it up, none of my damned business anyway.

"Never mind." I moved to step away from her, but she stopped me.

"No, no. It's okay. It's a valid question, would be real inconvenient to deal with in our situation. Lucky for us, it's not a problem." She pursed her lips and squeezed the water out of my tank top, laid it flat on a nearby rock. The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"Why's that?" She picked at the seam of the drying shirt, her face suddenly sad.

"Don't have one, sugar. Haven't for years." This really wasn't my business, but I knelt beside her and she looked up at me with regret in her eyes. "Hank doesn't know if it's just because we train so hard, or if it's something wrong with me, something caused by my powers. But he's pretty sure I can't have…can't…" She swallowed and I felt like such a dick for even bringing it up. I reached up and tucked a stray lock of her white stripe back into the auburn hair behind her ear.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know, girl."

"S'okay, sugar. Not many people do, it's not something I like to talk about. Pretty much just the Professor, Hank, and…Remy." She almost tripped on his name, but kept going. "It was always such a non-issue anyway with my powers. Not like it was gonna happen, kind of need to be able to touch to get pregnant, right? Who knows what my powers would have done to a baby growing inside me! Then, after I gained control and things still didn't…" She stopped herself, shook off my hand and stood. "Probably for the best, right? Nobody wants a hot mess like me for their mother anyway." I almost let it drop, she was clearly uncomfortable talking about it, but some twitchy thought made me push further.

"What did Gambit have to say about it?" Her face blanched and told me I had hit it right on the mark.

"Doesn't matter, does it? He was the one who dumped me, remember?" She stomped off which was kind of what she did when she got pissed at me. We'd argue and her temper'd soar, her eyes flashing and she'd bounce off in a huff to cool down. Most of the time, I kind of liked it, she was real sexy when she was all worked up. This time, I wanted to follow her and pull her into my arms, tell her everything would be all right. I scrubbed my hands down my face. Jesus. I had no fucking idea. I knew she'd probably punch me if she knew I was feeling sorry for her, but damn. Why had she kept this from everybody? From me? I thought we were close. Was this the real reason she had pushed Gambit away, why she had thrown herself at that son of a bitch Magneto? She could try to spout off that shit about followin' her animal instincts to me again all she wanted, but the bottom line was that bastard Magneto already had kids. Gambit was young and he loved her, probably talked a lot with Rogue about starting a family together. It made me even sadder that she thought there was something wrong with her, something broken just 'cause she couldn't have kids.

I stood to go after her when I spotted the cats for the first time up on the horizon. My heart hammered and the hair on my neck stood on end. I crouched low but knew they had already been watching us. I listened for Rogue, worked slowly her direction. If they had made a move, I could have gotten to her, protected her. I sniffed and looked slowly around, but only saw the two of them. They were lying in the tall grass, tails swishing lazily back and forth, looking exactly like two big-ass kittens stalking a mouse. I watched them, hoping real hard we weren't the mice.

**Sam**

"C'mon girl, just two more."

If looks could kill, I'd have been a dead man. "You said that…two reps ago!" Red-faced and sweaty, Lila gritted her teeth and gripped the weight bar, her dark eyes just angry slits. I laughed and leaned over her from my spot position.

"Did I? Guess I lost count." She rolled her eyes at my smirk. "We can start over if you want…One…"

"No!" She exhaled in a dramatic puff. "Two more is great!"

I had been putting her through her paces the last couple of weeks, physical therapy the next phase of her recovery as Hank put it. Her body was bouncing back quickly, but things were moving slower than she wanted them to and it frustrated her. Today was a good day though, her muscles were humming and her spirits were good. That had been the hardest, keeping her up and keeping her motivated. Two months unconscious, another month working to be able to stand on her own, she had to learn to do everything again like a toddler taking her first steps. Her intergalactic tour had to be cancelled, her agent called a couple of times a week to check on her progress. She was depressed, and the lack of access to her powers cast a big shadow over everything she had accomplished so far.

My own anger and sadness at the state of my powers had been slightly mollified by switching the focus to her and her recovery. Gave me something to work on, to strive for. If we could get her 100%, get her powers rolling, then Anna and Logan…I stopped myself, not wanting to get too far ahead. Hank had been sequestered studying the sample Gambit and Storm had brought back, doing his damnedest, but coming up goose-eggs. As a team we'd barely been able to get him to eat, sleep, and shower on a daily basis, only Ororo, in between helping Gambit with his own slow recovery, seemed to be able to bully him into a semi-human routine.

"Two! That's it, Guthrie! I'm done!" I relieved Lila of the weight bar and handed her a towel.

"Good job, girl. You worked real hard today." I helped her sit up. She draped the towel around her neck and looked at me ruefully.

"Yeah, great job. That was just the bar, you realize? No added weights at all and my arms are jello." She shook her head and scowled, the frustration as thick on her as her sweat.

"It's not like you could lift weights before. You've always been a pretty big wuss." Her mouth popped open and I grinned at her. I laughed so hard I barely managed to dodge the sweaty towel she whipped at me.

"Isn't there some sort of medical board I can report you to? I don't think physical therapists are supposed to abuse their patients like this!" I pulled her close and planted a big kiss square on her lips. She tried to squirm away, but I held her tight.

"Ewww, Guthrie, I need a shower. I'm seriously sweaty." She wrinkled her nose in distaste. Lila didn't like to sweat and got pretty pissed at me for making her do it, but it was for her own good. I kissed that wrinkled little nose.

"Reckon there's room in that shower for two?" I buried my face into the side of her neck, one of her notoriously ticklish spots. She squealed. "Is that a yes?" I asked and pulled my head back. She swatted me on the arm.

"Sam…"

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"

The profanity laced baritone that rumbled through the halls belonged to the Beast. Lila and I exchanged confused glances, and I jumped to my feet and helped her up. We hurried towards his lab and found the Doc…laughing.

"Dr. McCoy?" Lila stepped forward into the lab and I followed. The Beast's white coat clad form was shaking with peals of laughter, so deep and hard tears wound their way down his furry face. Lila looked alarmed and gestured for me to do something. I stepped around her and touched his big burly shoulder.

"Hank, are you okay?" I asked as he brought himself under control. He took off his glasses and wiped them on his lab coat.

"Ahhhh…Sam…Lila." He continued to grin and an occasional laugh bubbled out of him. "I apologize. Not the most eloquent use of the language of Shakespeare, but occasionally appropriate to convey one's feelings." He hooked his glasses back over his ears and smiled at us. "And, in answer to your question, I am most definitely all right." He gestured to his table, a jumbled mad-scientist's mess of papers and petri-dishes. Front and center was the vial Gambit had liberated from the Purifier's laboratory. "And, hopefully, soon, the two of you will be just as all right."


	7. Chapter 7

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

**Rogue**

"C'mon, c'mon…"  
I rolled the stick between my hands, desperately praying for a spark. I was hot, tired and angry and this son of a bitching thing wouldn't light! Tonight it was my turn to start the fire while Logan had gone down to the stream to wash off the day's grime. We took turns getting the camp set up, not that there was much camp to speak of, mainly one of us getting the food going, the other the fire. Most nights I had gotten it lit easy enough, though I hated it. Of course when it was Logan's turn I'd come back from freshening up and he'd already be kicking back next to a roaring fire, easy breezy, like he had some ancient Canadian secret for sparking kindling. Why was everything so goddamned easy for him? Man had been making me feel like an inexperienced child every time I turned around. I had survived just fine in a prehistoric wilderness all by my lonesome without his fancy dancy powers. I caught sight of a precious spark and bent low, whistling gently over it while I fed dried blades of grass in around it. C'mon, c'mon…

"What are you doing, darlin'?" I paused, redirected my air.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I looked up under my lashes and shot him the death glare as my pathetic spark fizzled and died. My temper lurched into my throat and I swallowed it, bit my lip and took a few deep breaths. He was giving me a strange look, his eyes crinkling and the corners of his mouth tugging like he was trying real hard not to laugh at me. I, on the other hand, was trying not to punch him. Instead, I flipped a lock of white bangs out of my face.

"Fire doesn't start itself, sugar, usually needs a spark." I went back to what I was doing. He had been on my case for days, but it was more than that. Something had changed in him and whatever it was added a further complication to our relationship. When he thought I couldn't see him, I had caught him watching me, and his eyes in those stolen glances burned with a sudden desire that startled me. Where was this coming from? There had never been anything like that between us. Well, that wasn't quite true. There had been kisses, sure, easiest way for me to borrow his power, and they were always fun, even in the middle of danger, but, once, there had been a kiss with a capital 'K', all lips and hands and passion and fire. It had happened but we had never talked about it again. But now, the two of us stranded together on this rock, he was starting to look at me like I was his last meal. Was he just lonely? Was I? Was I imagining every white hot brush of his skin on mine? Neither of us had been able to yet bring a voice to the shifting sand around us.

Without a word, he walked over to grab his jacket from where it was draped over a tree branch. I was dizzy and pissed, getting nowhere with my fire. What was my problem tonight? Logan dropped his jacket on the ground and knelt beside me. I was ready to snarl when he dug into the pocket of his jacket and produced a silver zippo lighter, flicked it, and held its flame to my pitiful pile of dried grass. My jaw dropped and I stared as the flames caught.

"C'mon, now," he said gruffly and tugged on my shoulder as he stood. "Don't get your eyebrows burnt off."

"You…you have a lighter?" Numb rage rolled down my limbs. I was so angry I couldn't see straight.

"Figured you knew, darlin'." He stepped over to his jacket and deposited the offensive metallic object back into the folds of worn leather. I stood, seething, stick in my hand.

"You have a lighter," I hissed with as much venom as I could muster.

"How'd you think I was starting the fires so fast every day?" he asked, enough sense not to outright laugh at me as I stalked towards him, taking huge gulping breaths. "Thought you saw it in my pocket."

"This whole time, you've had a lighter?!" I brandished my stick like a sword and stabbed it into his chest, using the point to emphasize every word. "You…big…fat…cheater!" He lost it and tried his best to dodge my angry pokes in between roars of laughter.

"How was I supposed to know you were doin' it the hard way? You always had the fire goin' by the time I got back to camp!" So had he. I threw the stick at him in disgust and pressed my hands to my temples. I was ready to cry I was so pissed off, but I was sick to death of weak tears.

"Now, goddamn it, don't be like that." He spun me around and I tried to shove him, but he caught my hands and held them tight. I squirmed to pull away from him, twisted to shake loose, but he pulled my backside into his chest and, keeping ahold of my hands, wrapping his arms around me. The warm feeling of being in his arms confused me so I lashed out at him, hooked my leg around his and shoved, knocking him off balance in a judo flip. He drug me down on top of him and flopped down on his back in the dirt. I pushed my head away from his chest but he wouldn't let go of my hands. I yanked on them to pull them free, but he curled his around them, running his thumbs along the tops. I let out a great big shuddering sigh of defeat and looked towards the growing fire in its ring of stones. When I looked back at him, his eyes were warm, almost hungry as they traveled across my face and body. A small shiver ran up my spine. I wasn't sure what this was, but whatever was changing between us had us both breathin' a little heavier than we should have. Were we still just friends? In that moment, I just didn't know anymore and was certain he didn't either. I slid my lower half off of his and smiled sheepishly, though I swear I saw a flash of regret in his eyes when I turned back towards the fire.

**Logan**

Left Rogue sleepin' by the fire, though I could see her from where I crouched in the crook of a nearby tree. Really hadn't wanted to leave her alone, but, sick as it was, I needed her as bait, needed everything to look like business as usual for our little friends. Made her absorb an extra big dose of my power before we settled down to sleep, her doin' nothing but bitchin' and whinin' while she touched me. The absorption hurt this time, first time in a long time her power had caused me any pain. I think she did it on purpose 'cause she was pissed at me. What else was new? Every time I turned around she was throwing a tantrum about something. Knew she was just lashing out at the unfairness of our situation, most of the time I didn't mind being her target, but sometimes she hit a little below the belt.

Waited 'til she was out cold, knew there was no other way she would have let me go off by myself. She tossed and turned on the hard ground for a long time before her breathin' finally settled and she fell asleep. Watched her for a while to make sure she was well and truly out, didn't want her stubborn ass following me, wanted her quiet and safe. I had been watching her sleep a lot lately. Her face was so relaxed when she slept, all the weight and stress and anger of what we were goin' through melting away. She was gorgeous, one of the most beautiful women I had ever known, and that was flamin' sayin' a lot. In that moment, more than anything, I wanted to curl up right next to her and hold her in my arms, make her forget all the things that were causing her pain. There had always been a fine line in our friendship, and the realization that I wanted more from her hit me like a punch to the gut. I swallowed the feeling. This wasn't the time or place, wasn't sure there ever would be.

I had moved away from camp and climbed a tree within sight of her, watching the firelight fade. They were still followin' us most days and I wasn't gettin' any damn sleep at night, knew they were just out of our fire's range, watchin' us. I needed to end this before they got over bein' curious and one of us got hurt. Time to make a stand. Heard 'em comin' before my eyes picked out the shadows of their sleek forms winding through the grass. They moved nearly silently. Wasn't sure why they hadn't made a play for us yet, didn't really make sense to me, wasn't what you would expect from predators. If they saw us as a threat or food, most animals would have lashed out at us by now. But they had been real cagey, just followin', stayin' downwind, observing us, learning what we were about. That made me real nervous. The majority of creatures we'd run across on this planet so far had given us a wide berth, Rogue said it was because my animal stink let them know to get out of our way, but these guys weren't fallin' for it and weren't scared of us.

They came just to the edge of the firelight, two of 'em, like always. By the smell it was the same two. Had thought at first that maybe we were running into different pairs of them, goin' through their territory or something, but it had been the same creatures every time. I had hoped they'd stop following us the closer we got to the looming forests, to a different landscape, but no such luck. Needed to let 'em know I wasn't taking their shit anymore.

They were under my tree and I dropped from the branches, landed in their path in a defensive crouch. Didn't pop my claws but bared my teeth. They hissed, soundin' to my ears more like a pair of cobras than housecats, their spikes raised like hackles on their backs. I rose from my crouch but didn't stand to my full height yet, stayed low and loose. Their fangs, a mouthful of matching six inch spikes glinted in the dying light of the fire. I stomped a foot forward and their hisses became low growls. I kept moving slowly forward as they backed up, weaving around each other as they went. I could see them catching each other's signals, decidin' if they should attack me or flee. Fight or flight played out across the galaxy. I made the answer easy for them and popped my claws, the six blades gleaming, stood to my full height and snarled. They danced at me like scared kittens and then bolted through the grass, their retreat less silent and graceful than their approach.

**Rogue**

"You're not doin' it right, darlin'."

I ignored him and stooped to untangle my newly woven net from a patch of aquatic plants. I was pretty proud of my handiwork, wouldn't hear him badmouth it, and shook it out to make sure nothing had been damaged. We had found a species of fairly sturdy yet supple vines climbing some of the trees and I had been obsessively messing with it every night when we stopped, trying to find any use for it. So far, I had managed to make a net that I hoped would work for fishing, as well as a mesh knapsack to carry our spare clothes and tools in.

It was a beautiful day, thick with sunshine, and playing in our stream that had widened to become a river made me ridiculously homesick for Indian summer days on the Mississippi. I sighed and smiled at the memory, felt the water on my bare skin bead and evaporate under the alien sun.

"You okay, Rogue? Did it rip or something?" I gathered the net over one arm and turned towards Logan. He was bare-chested near the opposite bank of the river and looked to be hunting fish. A claw on one hand was extended and shining. He was soaked, dark hair on his head dripping and the matching hair on his chest and abs clung to each and every quivering muscle. His jeans were heavy with water and had slipped low on his hips revealing his chiseled v-cut and almost a little more. I blushed and ducked my head as I waded into the water near the bank and pushed hard through the strong, deep current in the middle as I headed back to him. I felt almost badly that he had to wear his one and only pair of pants pretty much twenty-four seven, but it wasn't my fault that he felt the need to not ever wear underwear. I had already caught more than a few glimpses of the little fella so far during our intergalactic vacation but, let me tell you, there was hardly anything little about him.

He held a hand up to stop me from coming towards him and put a finger to his lips. He tensed and struck swiftly into the thigh deep water. With his arm all the way in the water, he smiled at me and triumphantly pulled a fish from the murky depths. It wriggled and fought on his claw and he had to grab the glistening, twisting fish with his other hand to stop his razor sharp claw from slicing right through it.

"All right, bring that net over here, would you?" I hurried towards him, my feet picking carefully along the river bed beneath me as I crossed into the shallower water near him.

"How do you want to do this?" I asked and unfurled the net. He didn't answer me. I looked up to question him and caught the Wolverine ogling my scantily-clad form, a dumbstruck look on his face. _He_ didn't wear underwear, but I sure did and I had been using my bra and panties as a substitute bikini. So, I liked matching sets of black silk and lace. Was that a crime? Logan continued to stare at me like he had never seen me before. "Logan?" Putting my hands on my hips, I cleared my throat. "You want to put it in here, or what?" He blinked several times and looked confused, like he wasn't sure he had heard me.

"What?" he asked, dazed. I was messing with him, but it was kind of fun. He was totally busted for checking me out.

"Did you want to put the fish you caught into my net?" I asked slowly, trying to hide the smirk that threatened my lips. He frowned at his fish and then looked at my net.

"No. No." He shook his head to focus. "I'll toss the fish on the bank by our stuff and clean it in a few minutes. Just thought this looked like a good spot to try your net. Terrain is right if you can throw it like you're supposed to." He moved through the water towards where our clothes were resting in sight on a sandy patch of shore. He laid the fish in the shade of some reeds, well back from the water, and rinsed his hands and claws in the river before coming back over to me. He held out his hand for the net; I pulled it back possessively.

"Did just fine in the Savage Land, thank you very much, with one just like this," I snapped. The heat was making my temper rise. He laughed and put his hand on my arm, tugging at the net.

"I'm sure you did, darlin'. But that was a long time ago, you're probably just a little rusty." I yanked it out of his hands.

"Rusty?" I gave him my best death glare and he put his hands up defensively.

"Okay, Rogue. If you're so damned good, let's see what you've got." He ran a hand through his wet, thick hair and crossed his arms over his chest. He had given up shaving a while ago and the shadow of a full beard was forming on his face. I liked it, made him look even wilder. Logan wasn't what you would call classically handsome, more like rugged and manly. It was sexy as hell. "Well?" He gestured to the water. I gritted my teeth and gave the net a determined toss. It twisted itself into a ball midair and dropped uselessly a few feet from us.

"Dammit!" I hissed and waded after it. Logan chuckled and I stuck my tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes and walked out to meet me.

"Quit bein' so goddamned stubborn. I'm tryin' to help, you're just not quite throwing it right. You've got to snap your wrists when you do it." I shook out the net in front of me and he reached for it. "Here, let me show you." He moved right behind me, his chest pressed up against my back. He put his strong arms around me and gripped the net in front of us. "So, get a good hold on it, but not too hard, you want to keep your wrists and fingers nimble." His voice rumbled in my ear and I tried to pay attention to what he was showing me, but my body was paying more attention to what he was doing to me. He was warm, but the feeling of his skin against mine sent shivers up and down my spine. After so many years unable to touch anyone flesh to flesh, I still got a little crazy when someone was pressed against me. I felt my skin flush. "When you're ready you just…" he stopped and I knew he felt my shivers. I heard him swallow and he moved one of his hands to my upper arm, sliding his palm along the goose-bumps raised there.

"You cold, Rogue?" he whispered. My heart hammered in my chest and I turned my face towards him.

"No, sugar." I looked up at him and our lips met slowly over my shoulder, just a small, tentative kiss. Holding onto the net with one hand, he turned me around to face him and our lips moved together again, surer this time. His arms found my waist and pulled me tight against his body. When he let go, we were both beyond breathless. His eyes were troubled, searching mine for answers.

"Anna…" The sweet moment was shattered by a loud splash downriver, and his head spun to the sound. "Oh, shit!" He dropped me, dropped the net and charged deeper into the water. An embarrassed laugh bubbled in my throat as I caught sight of a small creature, vaguely otter-like, swimming away from the bank with Logan's fish in his mouth. The critter was long gone before Logan had even gone ten feet and he waded back to me.

"Fast little guy. He'd almost be cute if he hadn't stolen our damn supper." He opened his mouth to say more, clearly embarrassed by what had just happened between us. I didn't need him to say it, I got it. I'm no Jean Grey or Ororo Munroe. We had both gotten caught up in the moment again, we were just friends, after all. I decided to let it go and rescued him from any further discomfort.

"I better get cracking then, or our bellies will be empty tonight." I smiled and tossed the net out, gleeful at its perfect landing.

**Sam**

"Mutagenic specific agent."

Hank's words hung heavy in the air.

"Mutagenic specific agent?" Storm repeated the phrase, got the flavor of the words, and our group, perched on couches and chairs in the headmaster's office, looked from her to Beast in anticipation. Gambit, Rachel, Storm and I weren't the most scientifically advanced X-Men, adding Lila to that equation…I hoped the Doc could dumb things down enough for our crew. I sure didn't want to be the only one asking a bunch of stupid questions. Storm had made the decision to keep our briefing to a small contingent, though Bobby Drake, the Iceman, had thrown a small temper tantrum at bein' sidelined. Not that I blamed him. He and Rogue had been pretty close for a long time and he was sick with worry like the rest of us. Bobby had stepped up, picking up the slack helping the others run the school while our group scrambled against the Purifiers. I promised him I'd fill him in, and the rest of the team would be debriefed later. The X-Men were spread too thin at the moment, too many responsibilities.

"Yes, Ororo." Hank queued up his laptop and spun it on the desk to face us. The man had a power point presentation prepared for god's sake. I caught Rachel trying hard not to smile. "The sample acquired by Gambit appeared upon my early inspections to be innocuous. Harmless. It was not viral in nature, nor a bacterial agent. A spectral analysis identified little more than a saline suspension mixed with a few disconnected peptides and food coloring." Onscreen 3-D models of floating molecule chains spun and shifted.

"How could a syringe of salt water and food coloring take out their powers?" Gambit piped up, gingerly curling his lean form sideways in his chair. That old familiar guilt washed over me. His recovery was progressing with Ororo's help, his burns slowly healing, but it all still fell into the 'my fault' category. Rachel caught wind of my thoughts and scowled at me, but it she didn't like what I was thinking, she should keep her telepathy to herself.

"How indeed, my friend. That has been my frustration. All of my research and study into the vial's components yielded nothing harmful, nothing capable of the damage the Purifier's weapon caused Sam and Lila. I thought that I had missed some crucial piece of evidence, so in desperation, I asked Tony Stark to double-check a small sample of Surge. I was vindicated, though still immensely frustrated, when he was in turn rewarded with nil results. Then, finally, inspiration." The projection on the screen moved, changed. "The peptides in the solution are harmless…when acting on their own." Onscreen the chains of molecules danced and swirled, realigned. A new molecule appeared. "Mutant specific agent I'm calling it, as in mutant required. The solution was harmless until it encountered mutant DNA, the X-Gene that gives us all our powers. At a loss one day, I added a drop of my blood to a small sample of 'Surge'. Turns out my blood, or mutant blood, was the compound's necessary catalyst. When the seemingly innocuous peptides encountered the X-Gene, these peptides attached themselves to the mutant DNA, burning out the mutagenic portion of each cell. An injection could theoretically introduce millions of strands of these peptides to each of your systems, its sole purpose appears to be to break down the mutant DNA in the host's cells as it spreads through their system. Initial contact with mutant DNA caused that tremendous 'surge' of powers and energy as the compound swarmed their prey. This interaction of the peptides with the X-Gene caused the burning pain you are both still experiencing as the compound works to scour away your powers."

"Scour away?" My heart jumped into my throat. "Are you saying this is permanent?"

Hank shook his head. "I do not believe so, and Tony is inclined to agree. The peptide was nearly impossible to track, but now that we know what we are looking for we have been able to better study its behavior. Surge remains hidden in the host's cells as it jumps from one to the next, burning the X-Gene out as it goes, but it is visible as it releases from the first cell and moves to its next target. That is why we were unable to find any unusual lingering toxins in each of your systems, one would have to be looking at the exact moment it moved from one cell to the next, and know what you were looking for as the peptide chains are in effect harmless until encountering the X-Gene. However, in answer to your question young Guthrie, now that we are able to track its progress through your systems, your own cells seem to replicate at a much faster rate than the peptides are able to swarm through your body. You both only received one dose, a finite number of mutant-attacking strands are loose in your system. If you had received multiple injections, things would be much more desperate. It has been several months and you still have a limited, yet painful access to your powers. I believe, and my colleagues concur, that we should be able to devise a treatment that will clean out these, for lack of a better term, 'rogue' peptides, return your systems to normal and reengage your powers."

"If this was a trial run for the Purifiers," Storm spread her hands wide. "Perhaps they did not even know the long-term effects of the compound, were unaware that it did not completely remove a mutant's powers with a single dose?"

"Or, didn't care." Gambit pointed at the laptop's screen. "Remember, Stormy, they were trying to use Lila's powers to suck away a whole grip of people. They wanted that initial 'bang' when what Beast described happened, the energy surge from the X-Gene mixing with what they injected into her. My guess is they didn't care what happened next."

"Valid theory," Hank clicked a key and a schematic starring me and my vital signs and tests from the last few weeks flashed on the screen. "As I said, they each received only the one dose of the compound. Multiple injections would have complicated matters infinitely. Young Guthrie's body is fighting, working to heal itself, our next step is to devise a treatment to remove the peptides and restore your powers."


	8. Chapter 8

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

Author's note: A little smuttiness in this chapter that barely advances the plot. If you don't like that sort of thing, skip down to Sam's POV.

**Rogue**

I nearly burst into tears when we pushed through the grass into a thicket of trees and saw that crystal clear pool with its very own waterfall. It wasn't along the main route of the river we had been following, more like an offshoot, but we had heard the roar of the falls and took a slight detour to investigate. It was like something out of a movie, the sun even shining through a break in the clouds to bathe it in a magical spotlight, the water tumbling down the cliffs of a rocky bluff. The bluff rose for a couple of stories, the rocks a sparkly grey lined with faint traces of rainbow shimmer like most of the stones we'd run across so far. A thick circle of trees set back a ways from the rocky shore of the pool at the bottom. It wasn't a deep, dark, old forest but more orchard-like, complete with flocks of singing birds, the trees thick with fruits and nuts we hadn't seen before. I avoided any awkward Adam and Eve comparisons and, needless to say, we decided to stay put for a while.

Our explorations unearthed a network of caves behind and around the waterfall. We poked around and Logan picked what he considered the best one in which to set up our camp for the next few days. We deposited our meager supplies onto the cool stone floor.

"You need to rest," he grunted, but the weariness was evident even in his eyes. We were both hanging on by our fingernails, pushing our bodies to the limit each and every day not knowing what the next sunrise would bring.

"What I need, sugar, is a shower," I laughed and untangled my hair from my treasured ponytail holder. "And that waterfall looks too damned perfect." We'd been staying clean as best we could in the river, but I've always been more of shower girl. Baths were for soaking in heaps of bubbles and reading a good juicy romance, not for scrubbing off the dirt of the day. The lure of water raining down on me was too strong.

He scowled, but I saw the corners of his mouth fighting a smile. "Water's gonna be pretty cold, darlin'," he said.

"Spoilsport," I stuck my tongue out at him. "I'd dump a bucket of ice water over my head at this point, getting real sick of squatting in the stream."

"Fair enough, darlin'. I'll check out the woods around us, get some firewood and scope out the food situation. Seems like there's some new eats for me to test, maybe some things we can carry with us for a little damned variety. I'll give you some privacy, but I'll be close. Holler if you need me."

I saluted and he grunted again, stomping off with his usual heavy steps. I dug through my poor beaten purse and unrolled the pathetic cake of soap I had managed to make out of some of the animal fat of one of Logan's suppertime victims and the ashes of our fires. I held it close and inhaled. Not exactly one of Remy's French milled lavender jobs in the fancy wrappers, but all things considered I did a hell of a job. No animal testing for my cosmetics company, I had Logan the guinea pig and his healing factor. Maybe if we came across a better fat for the saponification, some sort of plant oil? You'd think we'd stumble on a sunflower or olive-type plant. Oh, well, something to keep an eye out for. Main thing was the soap cleaned; it was my new best friend.

It occurred to me as I was kicking my boots off onto the cold cave floor that I would be putting my clean self right back into my stinky, crusty clothes. I stripped out of them, expecting them to stand on their own from the dirt and sweat caked on them. I grabbed Logan's discarded flannel shirt to use as a cover-up and twisted my hair into a bun, deciding, grudgingly, to wash my clothes first and heading for the rocks surrounding the pool. I waded into the shallow water at the edge of the pool, gritting my teeth in anticipation of the needle pricks of icy cold water. I sighed in relief. It wasn't cold, it was even sort of pleasant, downright warm. The sun was still streaming into the clearing, pouring its alien energy right down the waterfall and turning up the temperature of the clear pool, but the water was warm enough to make me wonder if the cave and falls were part of a hot spring system.

I washed my clothes with my new soap, using the rocks as a makeshift washboard. I laid them in the sun to dry and made my way back up to the waterfall, taking tiny, careful steps as I neared the slippery cascade. There was a cave directly behind the falls about halfway down, the water hit part of the ledge that served as the cave's entrance and then continued down the bluff. I stepped into the cave and unbuttoned the flannel shirt.

I paused for a moment, suddenly shy at the thought of getting naked in broad daylight, out in the open. Stop being silly, girl, I scolded myself. Who was gonna see me? Logan? The thought caused an unexpected warm tightness low in my stomach. The taste of his lips on mine briefly flared in my mind and part of me thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he did see me, that he should enjoy the show. I was being stupid, he had seen me in my bra and panties and couldn't care less. He was well off hunting and knew to give me my privacy, and so far we were the only humanoids on this stinking planet. I shook my head and slid the shirt off my shoulders, folded it into a dry patch on the cave floor and let my hair fall loose down my back.

Bracing myself, I slipped under the torrents of water. It wasn't cold, it was absolute heaven. I tilted my head back and stood still, letting the warm water pour over me, the pulsing pressure rolling over my body. It felt good, really good. It took me a few minutes to realize exactly how and where it felt good; just like the water massager back home. I swallowed and bit my lip, leaning back, enjoying what the trickling water was doing to me. I started breathing a bit heavier than I should have, and the warmth caused flutters of pleasure to roll up my body in waves. It had just been too long with too few private moments, and I started thinking all kinds of naughty, dirty things. In my mind, Remy's long strong hands ran over me, sliding down and into my…

I stopped myself, panting. How could I go from being afraid to strip down a few minutes ago to touching myself under the waterfall? My body reminded me how as another wave rushed over me, low and tight. T'hell with it, I thought. The way I was feeling, I would be done soon anyway. My hand took Remy's imagined path, but, thinking of Remy made me a little sadder than I wanted to be right then. My mind drifted to Logan, back to that kiss and the feel of his body pressed against mine. My stomach clenched and tingled as I started again, imagining his hands roaming over me, the feel of his skin on me, him in me…the pleasure pushed me over the edge in a shudder of fireworks.

**Logan**

The pool hooked up with our stream in a roundabout way, further on down. Trees were thick on both sides of the bottom pool. From the higher vantage point at the top of the falls it had looked like the trees would eventually thicken into dense forests, in the distance peaks of mountains complete with snow. At least, what I thought was snow. Who the hell knew on this weird ass planet? Could be cotton candy or something. But snow meant it could get cold, would get cold. We weren't going to be able to keep moving forever, if we were stuck here too long we might have to rest somewhere, wait out a season. Didn't really know what to think of that, if I made the right choice keeping us moving every day or if we should have stayed put somewhere and built up supplies, food, water, shelter. This waterfall would have been a good spot to hunker down.

I shook my head, reminding myself that, even though I couldn't see it from here, we could be fifty miles to a civilization. Didn't want to be stuck camping in the woods if help was that close. So far there had been no damned sign of anyone, not jet-wash or noise or garbage, no evidence of humanoids, no smells of chemicals or fuels or any other stink all kinds of people, alien or otherwise, seemed to bring. Had to keep us moving, for now, or we'd go crazy. Gave us something to do, to hope for. I'd find this spot again if I had to.

Was finally getting accustomed to the landscape, the plants and trees and sky had their own twisted beauty. Was even starting to be able to recognize smells and sounds, though it had taken a while. Of all the X-Men, I was actually thankful it was Rogue stuck here with me, even when she was bein' disagreeable. We had always made a good team, she was smart, listened when she needed to, put me in my place when she had to. Her being able to share my healing factor had been a real advantage so far, saved us a lot of trouble, kept her from being sick and injured for the most part.

She was a good match, would be in a lot of ways. My mind drifted to the smell of her skin, the feel of her breasts pressed up against my chest…I stopped myself. I needed to get this under control. We were alone together, stranded. We were each other's only human contact and the strain had started to show. We had been having a few moments lately, and had been coming close to crossing a line in our friendship. I cared about her and didn't want to take advantage of the situation, but, goddammit, one more time seein' her in the water in those lace panties of hers…I exhaled in a growl and took some deep breaths to calm the animal that had roared up in me. I needed to think of something else and started hauling firewood back to the camp. She should have been done with her shower by now, no chance of catching her without her drawers on. I hissed slowly and felt myself strain against the front of my jeans. Probably shouldn't do that, picture Rogue without her drawers on. The animal in me roared again, demanding, but I ignored it, kept working instead, gathered up a pile of firewood.

I neared the clearing surrounding the pool and just about dropped everything in my arms when I caught sight of her under the waterfall, still buck ass naked. I should have turned around, should have went back into the woods, but instead I set down the firewood and stared. Damn, she was beautiful, something I tried so hard not to see. Most people, living how we had been living, rough on the land, would have looked worn, sickly, but she was flourishing and my eyes drank her in like water in the desert. Dammit, you had known her since she was a smart-mouthed teenager, didn't seem right to think of her any way else. But there she was, milky white and naked, no mistaking she was a woman, curves swelling in all the right places. I should have turned and left her alone, but I stepped back into the trees so she couldn't see me, a throbbing ache in places I had been trying to ignore. I put my hand down the waistband of my jeans and exhaled, shaking. It felt good, real good. It had been too long with too little alone time, man had needs. I watched her and groaned when I saw what she was doing to herself up there. The animal in me couldn't get my fly down fast enough.

**Sam**

"Are you ready, Samuel?"

Doctor McCoy's voice crackled through the speaker above me. I nodded, knowing he and Rachel were watching my every movement from behind the glass of the control room. I lay as still as I could, face up on the slab, cold and completely naked.

Hank continued. "Remember, Sam. Think of this as a glorified CT scan. The table will insert you into the resonance chamber where you'll be injected with the targeting isotopes. The treatment itself will be relatively short, but you must remain as still as possible during the process. Rachel is here to assist you and to help manage any…discomfort." Discomfort. Euphemism for pain so bad it melts your eyeballs. This was the fourth treatment like this I've had and each one had torn me apart. So far, Lila had only been strong enough for one.

I took a few deep breaths to steady myself as the machine whirred to life. The table slid into a tube, looking a lot like a CT scanner just like McCoy tried to remind me, but the treatment he and his fellow mad scientists had devised to combat the Purifier's wayward X-Gene hunting peptides was more like a radiation treatment on steroids. I was injected with a custom-made cocktail, a Stark special isotope, which in effect hunted the hunters, went after those Surge peptides loose in my system. It was explained to us that when the isotopes found Surge they caught the damaging peptides in essentially a cellular net, held them fast. My body slid into this fancy-dancy machine, custom built and calibrated to target and blast the ensnared Purifier peptides, frying those suckers right out of me on a microscopic level.

I felt myself starting to shake and balled my hands into fists at my sides. Multiple treatments, McCoy had said, were necessary because of how Surge attacked the mutant X-Gene. The blasted things played hide-n-seek in the cells of our bodies and apparently were only vulnerable to the treatment when they were in transit, at a particular point of cellular mitosis when they were moving to take over another cell. For a day before each treatment, Lila and I were forced to drink a pretty damn nasty medication that sped up the dividing of each cell, forcing the peptides out into the open by tricking them into thinking it was time to move on to their next target. This meant more of them were loose in my system when it was time for me to get microwaved. The CT-but-not- a-CT, it had a real name but no matter how many times the Doc told me I couldn't seem to remember it, some monstrosity with six syllables and some Latin thrown in just to be mean, was tuned to target the Stark isotope and anything attached to it. The pain was indescribably intense. I wondered if it was how a slug felt when you dumped salt on it, only from the inside out.

The Doc only let us do about one treatment a month, and even though I was worried sick about Logan and Anna and Lila, I was kind of glad he put that restriction on it. I wanted to hurry and get us well so we could find them, but I couldn't handle any more, my body wouldn't let me. It was really like going through a radiation treatment for cancer. My hair had started falling out in clumps; I had given up any pretense of vanity and buzzed it all off. My skin hurt, my mouth had sores in it. I could barely eat.

Lila's body hadn't been recovered enough for the kind of damage McCoy was inflicting on it. She had barely finished physical therapy before we began the first round of treatments. I felt like the whole team was pushing her too hard, too fast. I knew we all wanted to find our friends, but they needed to back off. Her first go round with McCoy's torture chamber had left her violently ill for days, and left her bedridden for nearly a week after. I wished I could help her, take the pain away. Hell, I couldn't even hold her hand during the treatment. Nobody could be in the room while the machine was working, for safety. Reassuring when you're the one strapped to the damn table.

I felt Rachel's mind-touch numbing my nerves like a cold wet towel draped over me. Robotic arms popped from the inner surface of the tube, ten different syringes loaded and targeted to specific points on my body to inject the Stark isotopes. With Rachel's help I didn't really feel the shots, sort of like getting Novocain at the dentist. I could tell the needles were in me, felt them holding under my skin as they emptied into me, but they didn't hurt. No, the pain came after. My bowels shimmied in nervous anticipation. My living telepathic tranquilizer couldn't block enough of the radiation sizzling my cells and they needed me awake for the big zap. I had to engage my powers during the last phase of the treatment to trigger the X-Genes, make an even more tempting target for the Surge peptides to try and latch on to.

_"Go ahead, Sam." _Rachel's mind brushed lightly against mine. _"I'll do my best to minimize the pain."_

My heart jackhammered in my chest and I clenched the fists I had never relaxed at my sides, digging my fingernails in until I drew blood. I pushed hard, blasting with my wobbly powers. A second later, McCoy activated his microwave and I got to feel like a frozen French fry felt when it dropped into the fryer.


	9. Chapter 9

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

Author's note: Things get a little saucy between our castaways, so red flag on this chapter for many mature themes. Sexual content and then some really gory violence.

**Logan**

The days kept goin'. Been here so long we both stopped counting.

We made camp for the night at the base of a bluff, our river nearby. We were both hot and gritty from the day's walk, so Rogue headed for the stream with her little sliver of soap to wash herself and most of our clothes while I got the fire goin'. Darkness fell quickly and I was just about to go look for her, made me nervous with her off by herself, even though our furry little friends had been nowhere to be seen since I had my talk with them, when her smell wafted in on the breeze. I swallowed a lump in my throat when I saw she was wearing only my flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, hem grazin' the middle of her thighs. She laid out our clothes on a rock close to the fire to dry.

"Food ready, chef?" She smiled and combed through her wet hair with her fingers.

"Chef?" I grumbled and handed her the leaf packet I had cobbled together filled with the same old pieces of fish and spotted carrots we ate practically every flamin' meal.

"Hey, I caught it, you cook it, right?" She spread her leather jacket lining side up onto the ground and sat on it to eat. I sat Indian style next to her and started shoveling food into my mouth. She did good today, caught a nice sized fish. Opened my mouth to tell her that when I saw her black panties and bra drying on the rock, along with my tank top and the rest of her clothes. The image of her in them black panties, her lips meeting mine that day in the river, ripped through me. I nearly choked, waving off an alarmed Rogue.

"M'okay, darlin'. Wrong pipe." As worried as I was about her, she fretted over me constantly. We were clinging to each other like life preservers and that kiss had only proved it. We were friends, had been for a long time, but never any real…romantic feelings between us. This situation was messing with both of our heads. That wasn't entirely true, though. I had kissed her once, had wanted more than just her friendship, had wanted to make her scream my name. We had chalked it up to an alien influence, but deep down I knew that hadn't been entirely true. At the time, she had Gambit, she had wanted Gambit, and then I had…whatever I had with Ororo. Didn't want to hurt either of them, or Rogue, didn't want her reachin' for me in the dark just because she was lonely and I was here when he was so far away. Didn't seem fair.

We finished eating. Rogue laid my jacket on the ground next to hers and stretched out over both of them near the fire, closed her eyes and got comfortable. In the firelight, my eyes followed those long legs of hers up to the bottom of my flannel shirt. Her face was soft, beautiful…I tore my eyes away. What the hell was wrong with me? Couldn't keep looking at her like that, using her like that…

"I'm gonna' go wash up," I whispered hoarsely. Take a cold shower more like it. She stretched her arms over her head lazily and bent one knee, rolling her hips to the side, the hem of my shirt playin' peek-a-boo with me. Jesus, did she know what she was doing here?

"Hurry back, sugar," she said and sighed. I wanted to yell at her, to tell her to get her ass up and pay attention while I was gone, but I had to get away from her. Anymore of that and I would have been on the ground, rolling her over. I stripped my pants off and jumped straight into the river. It wasn't as cold as I wanted, but it helped me get myself under control. God, she was so fucking beautiful and the smell of her…I felt almost sick thinking of her like that, over what I did watchin' her that day at the waterfall.

This was Rogue. Rogue! We were friends, just friends, anything else would probably be just desperation, me craving human attention, and it wouldn't do either of us a lick of good. I dunked my head in the water. I couldn't think of her like that, she was spoken for and so was I. But was she? She and Gambit hadn't been together for months…lovin' somebody and bein' able to make it work were two different things. And me and Ororo, we hadn't had time to figure out what exactly we were. Would our friends judge us harshly for giving in to a basic human need? Sick guilt swam in my stomach when I remembered Rogue's angry face and words when I confronted her about her relationship with Magneto. Wantin' her wasn't just a human need, it was an animal instinct and she was right. I had no control.

I finished washing and got out, pulling my jeans on roughly over my still wet legs. I smelled her tears before I got back to her. She hid her crying from me, trying to be strong, but I knew she did it. She had such a big heart and was so goddamned homesick. She had probably relaxed by the fire, let her guard down, her thoughts drifting to home and the people there. She was turned towards the fire, curled into a ball. I knelt on the jackets with her and laid a hand on her shoulder, stroked it down her arm.

"Hey, I'm here. It's okay, darlin'." She sobbed into her hands and tried to push me away, but I picked her up and sat with my back against the rocks, pulling her onto my lap with her legs across mine and her side against my chest. She cried brokenly against me, her body shaking with big gulping sobs. I rubbed my hand up and down her arm and back, held her until she stopped.

She pulled back from my neck, and I wiped the tears from her soft skin with my thumb. She was solid and warm on my lap, and it felt so right having her there. I kissed her salty cheeks, pressed our foreheads together and ran my hand through her still damp hair, shaking loose her slightly musky scent. Before I could stop myself, my mouth was on hers. After a startled second, she was right with me, running her trembling fingers through the hair on my chest, along my arms, moving her lips against mine. She made an incoherent noise and I drew her closer into my chest. My lips and teeth found her neck and she moaned, leaning her head back. The collar of my shirt slid down her shoulder and I followed it with little flicks of my tongue against her skin. One arm held her snug around the waist, the other relocated to her leg and stroked along the outside, moving dangerously close to that short hem. My mind screamed to stop, but I felt the shivers running up her body at what I was doing to her, so I moved my face lower, teasing her collar bone. Her hips rocked against my lap and I moaned against her blazing skin. She already had me hard as hell in my jeans, but I could smell how hot she was getting and it was making me lose control. I growled and nudged the shirt collar down her shoulder further and tugged open the top button with my mouth. I triumphantly nuzzled into her bare breasts, the skin softer than I could have dreamed. We really should stop, my mind repeated from somewhere down deep, but I couldn't. Her breath caught ragged in her throat and my hand kept moving up and down the outside of her thigh. I went higher and rubbed my hand along the smooth curve of her backside. Thoughts of our friendship, how this was wrong, that I was taking advantage of her flared in my brain, but I was drowning in the smell, the taste of her. I worked a trail back up her neck to her mouth, swallowing her moans in a feverish kiss. I wanted her, wanted to take it all away, the pain, the sadness. She lifted slightly on my lap and her hand slid down my chest, down my abs, oh god, kept going…

We both froze when ear-splitting howls suddenly echoed off the bluffs surrounding our campsite. Her eyes were wide and frightened for just a heartbeat, then we each stomped down our feelings and scrambled to untangle our twisted limbs. She opened her mouth in question, but I silenced her with a look. We slowly parted and stayed low, slinking to the edge of our campsite away from the fire. I motioned for her to stay put, stupidly hoping she'd actually listen to me this time though the look she gave me told me how long that was gonna' last. I stared at her until she blinked and nodded sharply. I needed to know she was safe, needed to get away from her smell so I could think straight. I left her and crept further from the trees into the grassy darkness. The breeze shifted and I caught the scent of our furry friends, the cats that had been following us. Dammit, I thought they had given up, decided to leave us alone. The smell was stronger, definitely more than just two of them this time. I swore under my breath.

Hadn't seen them since we had had been spendin' more time in the forest, assumed maybe they got bored following us, or that maybe we had finally moved out of their territory. I had hoped that maybe my little warning to them had been enough to scare them away, but I should have known better. The fuckers had to have been staying purposefully downwind from us, waiting for the right moment to attack. Tonight, I had been distracted and they had gotten the drop on me.

Sleek bodies shifted in the dark, their eyes catching the moonlight through the shadows of the grass. The hackles on my neck raised, and twenty pairs of iridescent yellow circles reflected back at me through the blackness. Fuck. I must have scared them, and now they saw me as a threat they couldn't let stand. The original pair had brought the whole pack after us, they danced together in a swirl of fur and gleaming fangs, smooth killers circled their way 'round me. I popped my claws and roared a snarling warning, but they came at me faster than my eyes could track. I batted a couple away, my claws connecting with skittish flesh and bone, but I missed one. It went for my neck, its mouth filled with daggers dripping hot slobber that burned my skin like acid, its weight heavy and thick against me. Claws tore and shredded muscles in boiling spurts of blood. The cat worked with all its might to bring me down to the ground, but I stabbed my blades under its chin, felt its scorching blood gush down my arm as it shook and died. The others hissed, darted around me in dense shadows. I had them worried, but they were crafty fuckers, started diving at me two at a time. I would throw one away, slicing into it, and the other jumped onto me, speared me with its broad paws full of razors. Their claws frayed the skin on my bare back and chest, knife-blade teeth chewing hunks from my arms by the mouthful. When I took a pair down, another approached me. By sheer numbers they finally got my ass to the ground, the survivors dodging my swings and taking toothy nips at me while I fought with everything I had left.

Rogue's scent flared in my nostrils before I heard her, and I felt her throw her weight, claws out, at one of the cats on my back. I staggered to my feet, and struggled to keep one eye on her while we fought back against the remnants of the pack, but knew deep down there was nothing I could do to help her in the frenzy. I let myself fall over the edge, let the berserker rage take me, that old familiar sick numbness sliding though me. I drowned in it, hacked and ripped and tore in a murky red haze, lost my grip to the snapping of sinew and the spatter of sizzling, frothy blood. I didn't want this, didn't want to slaughter them, but they had made it real fucking clear it was us or them and I was aware enough to oblige them.

The staccato click of my retracting claws sent the last cat quivering to the ground in a pile of gore and muck. I shook violently, struggling to get myself back under some sliver of control. I dripped in a mixture of my blood and theirs, and I fought the urge to howl like the wounded animal I was while my shredded flesh worked to knit itself back together. I caught sight of her shuddering in the moonlight, her eyes wide with shock at what we had done, but still standing tall despite the blood running dark rivulets down her ghostly bone claws. I stepped towards her and pressed my forehead against hers, breathed deep again her smell, letting it center me. Without a word between us, we ignored the carnage we had wrought and returned to our camp. I stomped out the last embers of the fire, and she packed up our pitiful belongings, utterly normal actions we completed on automatic pilot while covered head to toe in the drying red horror of battle. I forced my mind and body to move, tried desperately not to give voice to the sweet regret of what had gotten interrupted between us, or to the sick guilty feeling that I had fucked up and my carelessness had almost gotten us killed. We moved out into the hushed darkness.

**Rogue**

Logan had been skittish all week, not that I blamed him after what had happened with that pack of cats. My mind still hadn't been able to process that bloodbath, but my nightmares had returned with a vengeance every time I closed my eyes. It was the first time since I had deposited us here with Lila's powers that something had challenged us, put us in real honest to god danger. We had come out on top, but just narrowly. After that night, we had headed in complete silence for the deep woods, had gotten as far away from the grasslands as we could, as fast as we could, walking day and night, hardly stopping to catch an hour or two of sleep, just moving. He had barely spoken a word to me since, just kept us trekking at a grueling inhuman pace. I could practically see him jump out of his skin at every swish of the tall grass. I wanted to snap at him, lay into him for not telling me about the cats when he had smelled them, when he had confronted them, to yell at him for trying to keep me away, but I just clamped my jaw angrily shut and followed him towards the trees. I knew he had been trying to keep me safe, I just wished he would realize that I needed him to stay the same.

There was a part of me that spent the days tied into anxious knots. My brain and heart had been speculating back and forth between them if his behavior had anything to do with what else had happened, or rather what else didn't happen, between us that night by the fire. We'd have to talk about it at some point, but today wasn't the day, yesterday wasn't the day, and I highly doubted tomorrow would work either. I wasn't really sure how I felt about the sudden heat between us anyway. We were both passionate people, and there was no denying the animal attraction between us. Had it always been there? Had we never pursued it because neither of us was ever available? Pity fuck he had thrown at me before. T'hell with him if he thought that was what I wanted, what I needed. I couldn't refute that our friendship was shifting, I just wanted it to be for the right reasons.

Today, we had finally kissed the grasslands goodbye in the early hours of the morning and entered the forest permanently. Ever since we had crossed that border, the Wolverine had been on high alert. During our alien exile, we had spent plenty of time in and out of the trees that were sprinkled along the river, but even I could tell this forest was different. It smelled older, deeper, dirt and death tangled in the rocky soil under our feet. The groves of trees and small orchards we had traipsed through before had been sunny, airy. Here, twisted masses of spiraling branches towered above us and reached for the sky, layers of leaves as big as tarps blocking most of the sunlight, the little light that filtered through bathing the world in an eerie hushed cast of colors. The temperature was a good thirty degrees cooler during the day than in our grassy ocean, and the nights had gotten downright cold. The scraggly plants that managed to grow here were harder, darker, yellowed mosses and ferns the texture of thick spider webs blanketed the forest floor. We were still following the river, but from far above, walking the tops of rocky bluffs like a tightrope. The water wound its slow shimmering path below us.

I had hoped at first that his utter silence meant he was just being paranoid, overly cautious in his surveillance or our surroundings because those damned cats had gotten the jump on us, but I knew in my heart now that his refusal to look or speak to me meant he was guilty, blaming himself for the attack. How the hell was this his fault? How was he supposed to know a good scent from a bad one? There was no way we could live in constant fear, at the ready to fight back at every snap of a twig or firefly that flew by, how did you sort out what was dangerous and what wasn't? I couldn't make heads or tails of any of it, still, even after all this time sharing his powers. As we hiked, Logan stopped and sniffed every few feet, knelt to pick at the underbrush, the forest a whole new stimuli for him to process. The leaves hung high in the trees were thickened shades of oranges and reds, and where the sun peaked through the interlaced branches I could see snatches of that teal sky. His eyes were never still as we walked, constantly darting back and forth like a ping pong ball between two paddles. Those cats had proved that predators weren't content to just leave us be, and he was freaked.

I was thankful at first not to have to talk, because I didn't know what was gonna' come out of my mouth if he asked, but the longer we walked the more his heavy silence pressed on my ears. He smelled so nervous, and that scent made me have to swallow heaping mouthfuls of anxiety so thick it threatened to choke me. My guts had a bad feeling under these shadowed and shaded trees. Something was very wrong. There were no sounds in the deep dark woods, the breeze at times stifled by the dense trees. I found myself actually missing the white noise of the swishing waist-high grass we had left behind. There was nothing for my sharpened ears to process besides our light footsteps and steady breathing, mingled with the roaring of the river as it became turbulent rapids tumbling over jagged rocks. Even the birds were either silent at our passing or didn't come to this part of the forest. I wished I were better with his enhanced senses, could be more of a help to him. Maybe if we had been on Earth where I already had a basis for what I would be smelling, but here…it was like trying to learn a different language. It would take time.

He pushed us like crazy. I knew he was uneasy, figured maybe he just wanted to get out of this section of the woods, to get us as far away as possible from the predators we had left behind, to find somewhere a little tamer to camp. Midway through the day I pointed out a small cave that would have made a nice little spot to take it easy. It was secluded, elevated on a serrated platform of rocks. It looked easy for us to defend, and I thought maybe he needed a place where he could calm down and relax for a day or two. He ignored me and just kept walking. I swallowed the wave of sudden irrational rage that lapped up and over my fear. Were we going to just keep walking until we collapsed?

After hours and hours of moving at a runner's pace through the dense trees and over twisted roots and rocks, he stopped so abruptly in my path I almost tripped over him. He caught me in a grab that was a little painful on my arms and I winced.

"Logan, I'm sorry, sugar." He looked at me like he wanted to tell me to shut the hell up, but then cocked his head to the side like he was listening to something I couldn't hear. His lips were a thin, white line.

"S'okay, darlin'," he whispered hoarsely. He finally looked at me, his true blue eyes trailing up and down my body anxiously. "You hurt?" he questioned. I shook my head.

"Logan, what's…" his tight smile cut off my question.

"Let's take a break. Why don't you see if you can pick some more of those weird carrot things from the river bank? For supper?" He squeezed my arms and stood me up straight. His eyes tunneled into mine and I swallowed my panic, hard. Like I said, I wasn't good with his senses, but I knew enough that I could smell the sweet cloying smell of terror rising from him.

"Sure, I guess." I turned to climb down the bluff to the river bank, my guts screaming in response to his fear. "You're coming, right?" He held out a hand expectantly towards me until I rolled my eyes and took my dose of his power.

"Yeah," he said sharply. "Just give me a minute, okay?"

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow and started to pull more than just his power. Logan snatched his hand away and spun from me on his heels.

"Get goin' girl. I'll be right down. Just need a minute by myself, is that too much to flamin' ask?" I fought the embarrassed anger that surged into my throat. Trying to sneak a look into his mind had probably been a little childish on my part. His words, though I had maybe deserved them, had been hurtful, but the voice he said them in was terrified at the edges. Something was seriously fucking wrong but my pull on his mind hadn't been fast enough. I didn't want to leave him alone, but didn't see a choice unless I wanted to start a fight that would probably end with him pushing my ass down the bluff.

The carrots he was talking about tended to grow within a couple of feet of the water's edge, had so far along the length of the river since it was just a stream. I was so sick of eating them at this point, and I'm sure he was, too, but they were everywhere and easy for us to eat, didn't make us sick. I shimmied down the jagged bluff, angry at his dismissal of me, worried and anxious at what it was he wasn't telling me, thankful for like the hundredth day that I had listened to Logan and changed my boots back in New York. Seemed like that had happened years ago and he had been kind enough to not give me an 'I told you so' about that one, though I probably deserved it.

I reached the bottom and found the feathery leaves that topped the carrots. I figured I would pick the damn things and if he wasn't down here by the time I was done, I was going right back after him whether he wanted alone time or not. I tugged a few out of the damp ground and angrily clapped the dirt from them. He was right, damn him, we needed food. We had burned through the few extra supplies we had gathered in our haste to get away from the grasslands at warp speed. When I had a big handful, I rinsed them and flicked off the excess water before shoving them in my purse. Carrots. We should have come up with better names for the things on this planet instead of just naming them the closet thing we could associate. I was sure Hank would be ashamed of our blasé attitude towards the flora and fauna of this alien world, and if I ever saw him again, I'd apologize profusely.

Craning my neck up the bluff, I whistled in surprise. I hadn't realized how far I had climbed down. Where we had been walking was a good hundred feet up from where I stood picking alien carrots, and Logan was nowhere to be seen along the top. My stomach flipped a cold chill up and over me, that bad feeling getting harder to ignore. Where was he? Had he really wanted me gone or had he…gotten me out of the way? His sniffing and cagey behavior snapped together in my mind and I scrambled up the slippery bluff as fast as I could, my hands scraping at the cold rocks. That son of a bitch! Logan wasn't just nervous, he thought something was tracking us and had gotten me out of harm's way. Again!

I heard it as soon as I crested the bluff, a blood curdling inhuman roar coupled with the metallic surgical song of his claws. I scrambled to my feet and sprinted headlong for the noise. The breeze shifted at me and I caught a whole nostril full of the smell of warm blood, Logan's, and something else, something musty and angry. I dug down deep with the toes of my boots and ran as fast as I could make myself, my legs pumping wildly, sailing over rocks and roots. I saw a slight clearing ahead, there were slices of sunlight illuminating a ring of massive fallen trees. The grinding racket and the fetid smells overwhelmed me, strengthening as I moved closer. I slowed my pace, even though I didn't want to, knowing I needed to make as little noise as possible. My eyes transfixed forward, my feet kicked into something soft. I looked down, surprised to see Logan's jacket and flannel shirt wadded in a pile on the forest floor. I blinked, confused, but kept creeping forward.

I wanted to urgently pop the bone claws that were itching in my forearms and charge in, Logan needed me, but the scents, the sounds told me to go in low and slow. I was overwhelmed in an instant: screaming, grunting, tearing, metal on flesh, the shriek of teeth and claws, the crunching of bones. My heart thundered in my chest to join the cacophony. I was still too far away to put visuals to the soundtrack, and I numbly wondered if another pack of those wild cats had decided to challenge us.

I was still thankfully downwind when I came to the edge of the clearing, and I stuck to the shadows. I bit my lip until I tasted hot iron and salt, trying desperately to hold back the blood curdling scream that threatened to rip from my throat when the picture before me became clear. A furry, hulking creature the size and heft of a pickup truck had Logan pinned beneath its massive paws. The creature was covered in corded, rippling muscles that were barely visible beneath thickly matted fur the color of dirt. Along its back and head were black bony plates arranged like a suit of armor; its basic body configuration made it look like a giant shaggy bulldog. The creature's broad side was turned to me. It hadn't yet seen me in the trees, didn't smell me thanks to the breeze, but Logan had seen me. His wide eyes were frantic, pleading for me to leave, to get safe. I shook my head. Not without him. They had fought, I could see where Logan had wounded it, where his claws had cut through the pelt and snagged the creature's flesh in between the armor plates, but I caught sight of where his blows had struck those armor plates, his swipes leaving only three angry scratches. Just scratches. Oh, Jesus H. Christ. A predator with an exoskeleton armor stronger than adamantium. How the hell was I gonna beat that?

I digested it all in a heartbeat. The armor plating covered mainly the top half the creature. It extended down from the ridge of the spine to encase only part of its sides, and there were gaps between each section of armor, leaving the creature's fur coated belly relatively exposed, as well as its throat. It had a skullcap made of the plates that circled 'round a mouth full of ten inch fangs, currently coated with Logan's blood. The animal in me clocked the vulnerable points open on its neck and under its chin. Looked like it walked on all fours, and it was using its front legs to hold Logan still under its tremendous weight. His arms were pinned at ninety degree angles, and the creature's foot long curved claws froze him in place, not letting him slash with his own.

I had to shove part of my fist in my mouth to stop myself from screaming again when the creature dipped its massive head and tore into Logan's abdomen. Logan howled and struggled, but the creature ignored him and started chewing the skin on his torso. I forced myself to move, shifting towards the creature's tail so it wouldn't see me approach. I held my breath and ran full tilt towards them, my feet a frightened whisper. I had waited too long, and my fear and indecision had gotten him killed. I would never forgive myself, deciding in that moment that I would die with him. Through his pain, Logan caught sight of me and shouted my name over the creature's attempts to feed. He jerked his head forward and gave me the opening I needed, cracking his adamantium laced skull into the creature's stubbed nose. I flung myself towards its head, extending my bone claws in the same motion. My aim was better than I deserved, and I mercifully felt the claws thunk into a soft spot beneath its jaw, under the edge of the plates of armor.

The creature roared and shook its huge head, tried to throw me off, but I held fast with my claws and stabbed the other three in the soft spot at the base of its neck with all of my might. The behemoth staggered back off of Logan and frantically scrabbled at me with paws the size of whitewalls, but I was small and in an awkward spot for it to reach effectively. It bucked and moved back. I pulled out the first set of claws and knifed them furiously into the hollow of its throat. It roared again and shook furiously, sending thick syrupy blood gushing down my hand. I pulled that hand free and stabbed at its throat over and over, shredding it to pieces in a manic fog. I buried my head in its thick fur while I murdered it, and screamed my soul out against it, raging at what this creature had cost me. In my berserker fury, I vaguely registered how soft it was between the armored plates. The creature smelled strange, not sweaty and grimy like an animal, but clean, like the dirt and must of the old forest. Over its scent I tasted the tarnished perfume of Logan's blood. Roaring, I let the animal in me take over and tore into flesh wherever I could reach it. I laid open its throat and stabbed one satisfyingly singular time into its eye socket, feeling a squelching pop when the claw pierced into its brain. It shuddered and gurgled, falling to the ground in a massive, thudding heap.

I was bloody, wild, and mangled. I pulled myself off of it and heard its banging bass drum heart shudder and stop. It breathed its final breath, but I had to restrain myself from flying back onto its corpse and tearing it to pieces with my claws. Instead, I ran to Logan's side and sobbed, horrified at what I found. Claw marks and bites covered his bare chest and arms; I dimly remembered stepping over his clothes just outside the clearing. Why had he taken his shirt and jacket off? He had done the same thing when he hunted the deer, said they made too much noise when he moved, but leaving them on would have allowed him a little protection at least. One ear and part of his cheek were missing, his molars and jawbone visible through the hole. I had to force myself to kneel beside him and look at his tattered torso. I sniffed for the smell of fecal matter, which would have indicated the creature had ruptured his bowel, but thankfully I couldn't detect it. The muscles and skin, however, had been ripped open like a candy bar wrapper. My trembling hands hovered over him, completely frozen in terror. Parts of him appeared to be missing, and what was there looked shredded, torn to pieces. I sobbed again. Could he heal from this? I had seen him hurt a lot worse, but this would be regenerating an entire organ system. His blood was spilling out of him by the bucketful, how the hell could I stop it? Did I try to close him up, bind the wound to stop the bleeding, or would that be worse, because it'd trap all the germs and decay inside him? He wouldn't be able to eat or drink, if he could heal, how long would it take him? My eyes darted around the clearing. The smell of blood was going to attract scavengers or worse, and darkness would fall soon. We couldn't stay here. Needed to find shelter, somewhere safe. I had no choice, I would have to move him, but that would be a feat in itself. I was stronger than most women, but he weighed over three hundred pounds.

I screamed bloody murder when Logan's hand gripped my gory wrist. He was conscious and breathin', but barely. Jesus H. Christ. He groaned.

"Don't be…scared." His eyes though, those blue, blue eyes, were alive and fierce. "Be…strong…"

Tears blurred my vision. "Logan, what do I…" He squeezed my wrist until I felt the bones grind against each other.

"…My guts…push 'em…back…fix itself…always does…" He faltered and laid his head back on the ground. I cried out and moved to hover over him, put my forehead against his and sobbed my heart out. "Rogue…get us the hell…out of here..." He kissed my lips softly and it tasted like rust and salt, my tears and his blood. He drifted thankfully into unconsciousness.

Shaking, I moved back to his abdomen. Some of his lesser wounds had begun to close superficially, but his ear and the mess beneath me hadn't changed. I wished I could wash my hands and the thought brought an irrational laugh to my throat. I slid my hands inside him, vaguely reminded of scooping the guts out of a hot pumpkin. I swallowed vomit and set to work picking out leaves and other larger debris, then pushed his spilled intestines back into the cavity. A lot more of his body parts were intact than I had originally feared. There were sections with severe damage, but a great deal of it looked salvageable. The meat and muscles were another story. His adamantium ribs and hips glinted at me through the shredded flesh, and this time it was too much for me. I pulled my hands out of him and vomited until there was nothing left inside. I crawled back to him and to distract myself sang quietly as I set back to work.

When I had what was left in its approximate position, I was able to see how much that fucker had chewed out of him. His organs were exposed to the air and would be for days. I was gonna have to cover the cavernous wound before I could move him. Thankfully, his unbreakable skeleton had stopped the creature from gobbling up everything inside of him, though if it had more time I think it could have gotten the job done. I needed something to shelter and protect Logan's guts while his body healed and sealed itself back up. I could loosely bandage him with long pieces of some of the nearby plants, but I needed something heavy duty to shelter the wound. My eyes lighted on the creature's carcass. If I could cut or peel off one of the smaller armored plates and get it clean enough, it would sure do the trick. I stood and popped the bone claws that still thankfully resided in my forearms and stalked towards it.

Earlier, I had managed to stab through its fur and flesh, so I started there. Smaller sections of armor grew on its haunches and along its side. I stabbed into its belly beneath the border of the armor and was greeted by a horrific smell. Han hadn't been kidding; they smelled worse on the inside. I sawed my way through the hide up to the armored plates. With a little effort, I managed to trim out the piece I wanted. It peeled away from the creature's fur like a press-on fingernail, but not without a tremendous effort that left me shaking and sweating. I examined the piece as I walked back to Logan's prone form. The armor was lightweight and surprisingly slick on top. Bone-like, but strong enough that angry razor sharp adamantium had barely scuffed the finish. The fur and skin had pulled clean away, leaving the inside smooth and unsoiled, relatively speaking. I knelt and positioned the plate over Logan's massive wound, then tied vines together and around to secure it. I couldn't leave the plate there forever, the wound would need to breathe, but it would keep him protected until we were somewhere safe.

I had wasted too much time already, needed to move, to get us out of there. There were huge plates of curved armor the size of car doors, adding to the furry pickup truck fantasy, growing along its side above the belly. If I could cut one loose, I could make a sled of sorts to pull Logan, maybe use his legs as the handles, flipping the plate so the slippery top slid over the ground. If the fur and skin would pull away just like the smaller plate, it would be clean enough inside for him to ride. No better idea presented itself and I certainly couldn't drag the man unprotected or carry him in his condition. I stalked back to the creature's carcass and worked to dislodge the largest armor piece. With too much effort it came loose and, quivering and exhausted, I cleaned out the remnants of fur and skin. I belatedly kept the largest section of the soft fur that had been attached to the underside of the plate. It was the size of a bedspread, but I really didn't know how long we could use it before it started to deteriorate. A pity we didn't have any salt or chemicals to tan it with, would have been nice to have a blanket. My eyes flicked to the creature's large head and I remembered another way to tan an animal hide: rub it with its own brains. The vomit taste crept back up my throat. After everything I had seen and done today, I decided I just didn't have it in me. I couldn't waste any more time. The piece of fur would last as long as it lasted, and that was that.

My own brain was completely fried, but I remembered the small cave we had passed earlier in the day. It would be tough to get him up into the cave, if I could even get him there in the first place, but we couldn't stay out in the open, exposed. The cave had looked easily defensible and it was close to food and water. I tested my sled, pushed it and practiced a couple turns. The route today had been bumpy, but thankfully not too hilly. I would have to keep it going as flat and straight as possible, the thing was lousy to steer, but it would work. It had to work. He'd be heavy enough to stay in the sled; I would dangle his legs over the front and drag him. I laid the fur bedspread in the bottom of the plate, pushed it over to Logan and lifted first his legs, then, grunting, gripped him under his armpits and heaved him into the armored sled. I wiped the sweat from my face, forgetting my hands were soaked in their mingled blood. I shuddered. It was going to be a long walk, and I had no idea what else was waiting for us in the deep, dark forest. I could still feel my claws, still had Logan's powers. Just let something try and fuck with me. I gritted my teeth and pulled Logan forward.


	10. Chapter 10

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

Author's note: Short chapter, I know, but it was such a perfect cliffhanger (hahaha) that I couldn't resist...

**Sam**

"I don't know if you're hot enough to pull that off."

My response to Bobby Drake's comment, where he had draped himself over a stool at the kitchen's island, was my middle finger. I felt wasted tired today and had avoided the crowded cafeteria full of staring students, opting instead for the quiet confines of the staff kitchen. The thought of eating food made me want to gag, but I had managed some hot tea and a small bowl of grits. I was preparing a tray of tea and toast to drag upstairs to Lila, hoping she'd be able to stomach something. She was still fast asleep when I had headed downstairs, and I hadn't wanted to wake her until I had to. My brave girl had been through another treatment two days ago. She had earned some extra sack time.

"Seriously, dude, your hair was like, fifty percent of your sex appeal." He wiggled his fingers over his steaming coffee, and I watched ice crystals crackle their way down the side of the mug. "Just saying, you may want to re-evaluate your grooming choices with a chick as hot as Lila." I ran my hand over the peach fuzz that had finally managed to grow back across my scalp after I had finished my sixth and hopefully final treatment.

"I'll take it under advisement," I said sarcastically. He nodded and sipped his now iced coffee.

"So…" he drawled, "how's Lila doing?" I clenched my jaw and froze mid toast-buttering. Bobby and I were tight. He, Rogue and I had gone through some shit as part of the baddest squads of X-Men to ever exist. I mean that literally, half the squad had been villains we were working to reform at the time. Rogue had been our leader, and she had done a hell of a job given the circumstances, made some damn tough calls no one else seemed to want to make, fought against impossible odds. The whole thing had ultimately blown up in our faces, but one good outcome was the strength of the friendship between the three of us. We had always been acquaintances, Rogue and Bobby had been really close at one time, but we had walked through fire together. It was love between the three of us, like brothers and one mouthy sister. For me to hear Bobby's thinly veiled question really pissed me off and I was not in the mood. He, like everybody else, wasn't asking 'how's Lila doing' to see how she was really feeling, he was asking 'how's Lila doing', as in, 'when is she gonna be ready to go after our friends?'

"Are you fucking serious, Bobby?" I snapped, my tired nerves adding a little extra venom and profanity to my voice. Bobby raised his eyebrows at my f-bomb over his coffee cup, and blinked a few times before he set it down. I jabbed my butter knife at him. "I'm gettin' real sick and tired of y'all breathing down her neck. Back the fuck off!" Bobby raised his hands defensively.

"Whoa, hey, sorry! I just wondered how she was doing! She had a treatment a couple days ago, right? I know it's really hard on her, just wanted to know how she was feeling. Didn't mean to get all up in your business." I breathed in a shaky sigh and threw the butter knife onto the counter. It clattered noisily and skidded into the sink.

"No, I'm sorry, Bobby. It's just…" I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger. "Everybody wants this thing over with _yesterday_, y'know? And Lila's recovery is going slower than planned, the treatments so much harder on her than on me…" I dropped my hand and looked pleadingly towards him. "She feels so damn guilty about what happened, Bobby. She feels like she got us into this, and that she's failing us somehow by not bein' able to get through these sessions. I keep telling her that no one thinks that, not you or me or Hank, not Rachel or Storm or Gambit…" Bobby's face twisted like he had just drank a mouthful of curdled milk at the mention of Gambit's name. "What?" I asked him. "Something else on your mind, Drake?"

"It's nothing."

"Bobby, I am too tired for this today. Either spit it out or I'm out that door and up those stairs." He grumbled and nodded.

"Just….Gambit, y'know? All these years and that guy still gets on my nerves."

"Thought you two got along pretty well. On the same squad not too long ago, right?" He set his jaw and concentrated on the coffee cup in front of him.

"Yeah, we were. It's just…Rogue." He flicked his eyes up to mine and they were surprisingly dark, dangerous. "He's not good enough for her. Never has been. He plays with her head, strings her along. Everybody else falls for his shit, but not me. I don't like it, I don't like him."

"He loves her, Bobby." I had seen it, the pain etched on the man's face when he talked about Rogue. Bobby snorted.

"When it's convenient he loves her. And he and Storm have been getting awful cozy lately, don't you think?"

"Oh, come on, Bobby. Ororo's helping him with his recovery." Bobby shook his head and scowled. "And it wasn't real convenient for Gambit to love Rogue when she couldn't control her powers."

"Sure it was, Sam. Remy the martyr loves the untouchable girl, rescues the damsel in distress. It's his fucking MO. You weren't here right after that mess with the Shadow King and Muir Island, back before the blue and gold days, but Gambit's little…manipulations of Rogue got him in real good with the rest of the team, won him lots of brownie points. Even won over Wolverine, cracked the old adamantium nut, you know Logan always had a soft spot for Rogue. Make no mistake, Sam, it was in Gambit's best interest to flirt with her and string her along, and in the meantime he got to rub up on one of the finest pieces of ass to ever wear the x-uniform…"

"Bobby!"

"Oh, fuck you, Guthrie. Like you don't know Rogue's hot." I grimaced.

"She's like my sister, man. I though she was yours, too." He glared at his coffee cup again.

"Yeah, you're right. Permanent resident of the friend zone, me. I had hoped, a long time ago, that maybe there'd be something more. Hell, even if I was just a shoulder for her to cry on…" He puffed out his cheeks and blew out a loud frosty gust of air. "Look, I know I'm in the minority here when it comes to those two. I've always thought she deserved better, deserved someone who would treat her right and I don't think he's that guy. He's so…slimy, always thinking with his dick. I'm telling you, something's going on with him and Storm, but it'd probably be the best thing for Rogue if he is sniffing around someone else. Pretty sure I'm the only one who cheered when they broke up the last time, though I wish she wouldn't have gotten tangled up with Magneto. That girl makes worse dating decisions than I do."

"Amen." I held up my tea cup and he clinked his mug against it.

"I really did want to know if Lila was okay, Sam." I smiled at my friend.

"I know. She is. And thanks."

"How are _you_ feeling?"

"Getting stronger every day. Hank wants to run a few more tests but he's cautiously optimistic that we got it all this last time." Bobby's face split into a big grin.

"That's awesome! Then you can start re-growing your hair!" We both laughed. Truth be told, I was real worried it wouldn't be the last round of therapy, and I didn't know if I could handle any more. I wanted to be strong, to be a man and show Lila that she could handle it if I could, but each treatment had been more painful than the last, an absolute torture session. McCoy was monitoring my system for any traces of Surge, and, like I said, so far, so good. It had been two weeks since the last round, but Bobby was actually being kind about my hair. I looked like a damned zombie.

Bobby stood and drained his mug. "Look, Sam, I've got to go corral the students. Place doesn't run itself…" He stepped up and bro-hugged me. I felt another pang of guilt. I knew he wanted to be into what we were doing to rescue Rogue and Wolverine, but somebody had to run the school and he had been elected. "Keep me posted, okay?" He patted my shoulder on his way out of the kitchen.

**Rogue**

Five days he had been healing. Five of the longest days of my life. He had yet to regain consciousness, though his wounds finally closed into red, angry, puckering gashes. I felt so helpless just watching it happen, not being able to do anything to ease his pain. He twitched and convulsed while I just sat there. Last night, he had started sweating something fierce, and his belly was inflamed, his hot sweaty skin sending out angry red fingers. Infection, no doubt about it, but we were only about a bajillion miles from the nearest course of antibiotics. I hadn't slept or ate, and my nerves were frayed and ragged. I had been trying my best to keep him comfortable, and had him laid out on our new fur rug on the floor of the cave. I got his clothes off and fetched water, scrubbed the caked blood from his body and mine, tried my best to keep his temp down. I shivered and stepped down from the protected entrance of the cave, stuffed my hands deep into my jacket pockets. Keeping him cool had been easy. I'd swear the outside temp had dropped a good thirty degrees in the last couple days. There had been another of those goddamn thunderstorms last night, all the rain and energy of a day's worth dumping down in the course of about five minutes. I was thankful as hell for the shelter of the cave shielding Logan from the wicked strokes of lightning that turned night into high noon. I had stood at the entrance, hypnotized by the spectacle.

I exhaled and started walking away from our camp, my breath trailing a vapor cloud behind me. Didn't want to leave him, but I needed to look for food. Guilt threatened to drown me as I realized I had needed to get away from the cave, get away from him, from seeing him like that, if only for a few minutes. The only time I had left his side since he had been hurt had been to go clean myself up and gather water, and then, last night, to watch the storm. Oh, Jesus, what was I gonna' do if he didn't make it? The thought slid cold and clammy across my skin. If I had eaten anything in the last few days I would have thrown it up, and I had to stop, swallowing the sick taste that had ventured into my throat. I started shaking, hard, and covered my eyes with my hands, ground them with the heels of my palms. Get a grip, girl. This was Wolverine. He would be just fine. So what if he hadn't opened his eyes yet? His healing factor would save him, like it always had. I rubbed my wrists, feeling the ghost of the bone claws lurking beneath the surface. His powers should have disappeared days ago, but the feel of them still whispered under my skin. Charles would have been proud, I had managed to hold onto an imprinted power for days, under extremely stressful conditions.

Oh, God. I bit back a sob. I had almost lost him, could still lose him. I had been kidding myself. Whatever little game we had been playing with each other, our little flirty back and forth, had completely blown up in my face. I loved him. Jesus H. Christ, I _loved_ him. When had I let that happen? I started walking again, furiously charging to absolutely nowhere along the top of the still muddy bluff, the river churning full and frothy in its banks far below, the angry energy echoing my mood. Over my thoughts, I heard the distant roar of yet another coming storm. I needed to head back, but I pulled my phone from my pocket, its charge still holding thanks to Stark's solar panels. I typed in my pathetic little password and flipped into my pictures. Remy's face, so beautiful it carved out a piece of my soul, smiled back at me. Guilt added itself to the twisted sickness of my insides. Why hadn't we been happy together, sugar? The passion had been there, Remy loved me, I loved him, but all we took were wrong turns. There had been so many things we hadn't been willing to overcome. The trust never came from either of us, and it was always drama, one of us hurt, the other guilty, the two of us stuck in some deranged feedback loop. It had gotten to be sickening, the lengths we had gone to hurt each other in the name of love.

Deep in thought, I slipped and skidded in the thick mud. I lost my footing and, flailing, skated down towards the edge of the bluff like I was sliding into home plate. I scrambled, muddying my leggings all the way up to my butt, digging my hands into the squelching cold muck trying to gain some purchase. I stopped myself at the edge and watched in horror as my phone, and Remy's face, flew over the edge.

"No!" I screamed and lunged blindly, unthinkingly, hoping to catch ahold of my last bit of Earth. The phone bounced and skittered to a stop on a rocky outcropping just below me, and I inched to the edge, hanging the top half of me over to reach for it. "C'mon, c'mon…" I bit back a sob at the sight of the screen, the glass cracked right through Remy's smile. My fingers were inches away, and I stretched, almost there…

The edge of the bluff, rain soaked and suffering the abuse of my added weight, gave way under my hips. I couldn't keep my balance. With nothing else to grab ahold of, I tumbled into the air, flipping ass over end I felt my head bash into the rocks, then my shoulder. The icy impact of water, like smacking into concrete, was the last thing I remembered before the darkness took me.


	11. Chapter 11

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

Author's note: Big old red flag on this chapter for sexual content. And Romy fans, maybe just shut your eyes for the next couple chapters...

**Sam**

_"Come in, Sam. I've done all I can today."_

Rachel's voice in my mind coincided with the swish of Cerebro's doors opening, or Cerebra, or whatever the hell they called this version of Xavier's telepathy enhancing technological monstrosity. I stepped in as she was taking off the machine's helmet and she smiled wearily at me.

"Anything?" She shook her head in frustration and bit her lip. I knelt beside her and rubbed her back. She sighed gratefully and hunched forward.

"I don't know why I thought this might work, Sam. It's utterly ridiculous. I've just been wasting my time." She shook her head again, her voice bitter.

"It ain't a waste of time. You reached out to the X-Men telepathically when you, Alex and Lorna were stuck in deep space." She snorted and scrubbed her eyes with her hands.

"Yeah, but I knew where you guys were. I wasn't just throwing my mind out there looking for the microscopic needle in an infinite haystack. I just thought that maybe, with my…background…combined with my rapport with Anna and Logan, that maybe I could hone in on them…" She hung her head in defeat. "This would have been so much easier if I still had the power of the Phoenix." Her lips cracked into a rueful smile. Her background. She sure didn't bring that up very often. Raised in an alternate future, she had witnessed the slaughter of her reality's X-Men, been kidnapped and imprisoned, tortured and trained as a 'hound', forced to hunt mutants with her telepathic gifts. She had escaped to our time and reality, a future where she cruelly would never exist. Using her powers like she had been brainwashed to do in her world was still hard for her even after all these years. She had later served as the human focus for the cosmic might and infinite power of the Phoenix, one of the few sentient beings to be able to claim that feat successfully.

I changed the subject to something that had been bothering me. "You wouldn't need the power of the Phoenix if Haller could help us." Despite the weariness in her eyes, stiff anger ran through her body.

"Yeah. Too much to expect, I guess." I wasn't sure if that comment was being fair to David Haller and didn't say it out loud, but still earned myself a dirty look from the redheaded telepath. I sighed. David and Lila. These were the people who should have been able to reach our friends easily, but both were too broken to make it happen. David Haller, the tremendously powerful and tremendously shattered son of our deceased mentor Charles Xavier, had more mutant powers at his disposal than a whole squad of X-Men. Each of his powers were controlled by a separate personality, and one of his personalities, name of Compass Rose, had the ability to teleport to a specific person no matter where they were in the universe. Rogue had previously borrowed the ability and rescued Rachel, Alex Summers, and Lorna Dane from where they had been stranded on the other side of the galaxy. If he would help us…but it was more accurate to say if he _could _help us. Too dangerous to control, David had taken it upon himself to rid the world of his chaotic powers. The irony was, if it had been any other X-Man lost in space, Rogue could have borrowed David's powers again, bypassed his crazy, and saved the day herself. Rachel had wanted to hunt Haller down and pit her telepathy against the legions in his head, take enough control to use the powers of Compass Rose, but she was overruled by the rest of the X-Men.

"He's too dangerous, Rachel." She stilled under my hand, held her breath. "Even if he could use his powers, how could we trust him to take us where we needed to go? He could strand us wherever his crazy ass wanted and we'd never get home." She sighed and nodded. "I want to find them too, but we can't take that kind of risk." She sat up and I helped her stand.

"I'm fine, Sam," she smiled and gently pushed my hands away. I smiled back and offered my elbow.

"I know, girl. I'm the one that needs help walking a straight line these days." She laughed and slipped her hand through the crook of my arm as we exited Cerebro.

"No kidding? Here I thought…" she stopped mid-sentence, her green eyes wide in shock. She dropped my arm as if it had burned her.

"Rachel?" I reached for her, alarmed.

"You have got to be kidding me," she hissed and picked us both up off the metallic floor with her telekinesis, her pretty face contorted into an ugly rage. She stopped us in front of the door to the War Room and flung the thick metal apart with her powers.

_"What the hell is going on here?" _she telepathically yelled. Inside the War Room a startled Storm jumped from Gambit's lap where the two had been locked a second ago in a pretty steamy embrace. My jaw fell to the floor.

"Rachel…Samuel…" The usually composed Storm stammered, nervous hands smoothing her rumpled uniform. Rachel shook the room with crackling energy. Gambit stood and faced us, not a feather out of place.

"Something we can help you with?" he asked coldly. I was embarrassed, sick to my stomach walking in on something that was none of my business. I knew they had been working real closely with one another since this whole mess started, but what the hell? Score one for Bobby Drake, I thought. All that smooth talk about lovin' Anna, and I had swallowed it hook, line and sinker, but Rachel? She wasn't having any of it. A claw made of pure telekinetic fire grabbed ahold of Gambit by the throat and slammed him hard against a bank of monitors.

_"You slimy son of a bitch! She loved you! She loves you!"_ Rachel screamed in our minds. I staggered to the floor when she dropped me from her telekinetic bubble, reached out for her and tried to stand.

"Rachel, calm down," I pleaded, hoping to diffuse the situation before it got any more out of hand, but she ignored me, shoving me and Ororo away.

"Calm down?!" she shrieked out loud, her green eyes wild. Gambit bellowed, but she squeezed him tighter. "He comes in here, puts on this big show for us, for what? So we feel sorry for him? Poor Gambit, he loves Rogue so much…you're disgusting! Couldn't you even keep it in your pants for six months?" She poured on the power and Gambit roared in pain. "Is this what you think love is? Is this all she was worth to you?"

"Rachel, please, it is not like that," Ororo tried to infuse a little regal steel into her voice, but right then, to me, she sounded pathetic. I thought I knew her, but right then I didn't even want to look at her.

"Shut up, Ororo," Rachel spat and kept her at bay with her powers. "Anna and Logan are lost. Lost, not dead! Would it have eased your conscience if they _were_ gone, or would you have even waited for their corpses to cool before you started ripping each other's clothes off?"

"Just like…daddy, eh, chere?" Gambit hissed painfully. Damn. Low blow from the Cajun, real low blow. Rachel's dad cheated on her mom right before she was murdered, or a 'past alternate version' of her dad cheated on a 'past alternate version' of her mom. Rachel's face twisted in revulsion and she dropped him like he wasn't even there, shoved past me and left the room. Released from her hold, Ororo sprang to Gambit. Checking him for injuries she helped him to his feet. I stood, numb with a sick anger and moved for the door.

"Sam…" Gambit's voice stopped me and I turned back to them. "What I told you 'bout Anna, my feelings for her, that was the truth. I love her. I will _always_ love her. We didn't mean for this to happen…"

I sighed and rubbed my hand roughly along my jaw. "What do you want me to say? That it's okay? That I understand? Do you want my approval?" I glared at them. "I've been a leader enough times in my life that I'm able to see both sides of the story. Believe me, I get it. I get how it could have happened. You're lonely, you're worried, you reach out for each other…Like I said, I understand, but that doesn't mean I think what you two are doing is right. But that's something you all have to live with, not me." I stalked off after Rachel.

**Logan**

I almost didn't find her; the rain hid her from me. Another of this planet's flamin' storms, the water emptied from the sky in blinding, cold torrents. Crippling my senses, it slowed my search.

I had woken up in some cave, confused as hell, smothered and sweatin' in a huge fur blanket. I was alone next to a dying fire, Rogue's scent cold. I shrugged out of the blanket and stood painfully. I was naked. My torso hurt and the pain caused the memories to crash over me, sending my heart hammering into my throat. I moved my hand along my stomach and sides, relief flooding through me. It felt like everything from top to tail had grown back. Wasn't every day a monster tried to eat you for breakfast, not a day I was looking to repeat anytime soon. I had gotten real lucky, and, except for the newly healed flesh being a little bit sensitive, it all seemed normal. I stretched tentatively, testing my movements. Hurt, but I had expected that. How long had I been out?

I poked around the cave for any sign of Rogue, trying to keep calm, not letting myself panic. My first thought was she had probably gone for food or water or something. I wasn't real happy she had gone by herself, but I clearly hadn't been in any shape to help her, and she'd probably chew me out if I checked up on her. Told myself she'd be back real soon. Explored the cave for a few minutes and, in my shaky state, stumbled over a small wood pile and threw a couple logs on. Even with my enhanced senses, I figured it wouldn't hurt to shed a little light on my situation. It didn't take long to stoke the flames back up. Found my pants draped over a rock, along with my other clothes. She must have recovered my shirt and jacket, looked like she had washed the blood out the best she could. How had she gotten us out of there? After a certain point my memory was a little hazy, I knew I would need her to fill in the blanks. I sat down in a huff on the surprisingly soft fur blanket and dressed myself slowly, wincing at the twists required to pull on my pants. Where had she managed to find a big piece of pelt? I smelled it and smiled when I realized where it had come from, my heart swelling with pride. Atta girl, she had taken that mother fucking monster out!

I waited for her, pacing an angry, worried path inside that cold cave for what seemed like hours. I officially ran out of patience when I heard the swirling, familiar sound of a coming storm and she still hadn't come back yet. I tore into the gathering dark to find her.

"Rogue!" I screamed her name, flinching at the frightening energy crashing around me, soaked to the bone before I had barely gone fifty feet. The lightning sizzled in the trees above me and my tender guts clenched, hoping the massive bolts would find taller targets than me. The flashing turned my surroundings to daylight for a heartbeat, and I saw fresh boot tracks in the mud trailing before me, filling too quickly with rain. My insides froze. I stumbled forward, still woozy, my nostrils flaring desperately for her scent, getting nothing for my trouble but the smell of ozone and thick, wet dirt. I followed her tracks and my heart skipped a beat when I saw a long skid that ended at the edge of the bluff. Fuck. I had to have been healing for days, and if I knew her like I thought I did, she wouldn't have absorbed my powers. I started down the rocky bluff, swearing, slipping in the mud and water. I smelled the thick saltiness of her blood despite the driving rain, and in another flash caught sight of her broken cell phone on the rocks, dark and glistening and different. Below me, the churning river. If she had fallen in, I would never find her. I had to stop myself from jumping straight down as I scrambled down the slick side of the bluff.

"Rogue!" I choked back a sob and shivered. "ANNA!" I howled until my voice broke and tore in my throat, moving along the bank in a panicked frenzy. After what seemed like an eternity, my ears heard a low, broken moan over the rain and rushing river. I whirled and crashed into the edge of the water, hissing at the temperature just shy of frozen. Her white stripe stood out like a flare on the next beat of lightning and I swam towards her, manic. We had gotten too fucking lucky. Again.

The water was deep, but I reached her quickly in the strong current and steadied myself on the rocks near her. Jesus, she must have slipped and fallen down the bluff and into the water. The current had drug her in, but somehow she had gotten tangled in a bed of those damn river reeds she was always messing with. I grasped her desperately with one arm. She was a fucking block of ice, but I was the one shivering in relief. I shook her and her eyes rolled open, green slits in the flashing light. I couldn't tell if she actually saw me before her head lolled back and she passed out again. Her forehead had a huge gash on it, still bleeding, but it looked partially healed, the flow slowed in the icy chill of the water. She was breathing, but I could barely feel her heartbeat. I steadied us and used the claws on my other hand to cut her loose from those flamin' reeds. I slung her arm over my shoulder, trying not to think of how cold and dead she felt in my arms, of how close it had been. Painfully, slowly, I swam us towards the bank. My mind was frantic, wild and furious. I knew I had to get her warmed up, get her awake so she could take my powers again, but GOD DAMMIT! This was what I had wanted to avoid, why I had made her take my powers every goddamned day, so nothing bad would happen to her! I could almost hear her stubborn ass reasoning in my head, but so fucking what? So what if I was hurt, she shouldn't have stopped borrowing my power! She could have drained me dry if it meant she would have stayed safe! Didn't she get that I would gladly die to keep her alive?

I hauled her limp form out of the water, my still recovering body quivering from the effort, the storm still raging. What if she hadn't caught those stupid reeds? I bit back another sob and secured her over my shoulders best I could. I began the agonizing, gut-wrenching climb, picking my way painstakingly back up the slippery bluff, the rain cascading down the rocks like a waterfall all around me. With each scrabbling, scraping handhold upwards, I tried not to think about what would happen if I slipped or if she fell. I finally dug one hand into the oozing muck at the top of the bluff and, grabbing hold of her arm with my free hand, wrenched her nearly lifeless form off of me and onto the mud. I grunted and, with too much effort, hauled my own shaking ass up. I lay, draped over her, trying to catch my breath. I swung her up and stumbled my way back to our shelter carrying her icy body in my arms. I barely found the cave. The rain had scoured my scent away, but I followed the smell of smoke from my fire snaking its way through the forest.

The storm began to finally rain itself out. I drug her up the rocks that served as the steps and laid her gently on the blanket, stoked the fire again, and threw enough logs on it to get it blazing. I moved over her and started pulling off her wet clothes. In the growing firelight my heart sank. Her lips were blue and her skin matched. I stripped her fast, pausing at her bra and panties, but shimmied her out of those, too. I pulled off my clothes and climbed in next to her, drew her down onto my bare chest and wrapped the fur around us like a sleeping bag, my arms and legs hugging her tightly.

"Come on darlin', come back to me," I whispered to her motionless form. It was too long before I got a response, but she finally stirred.

"Logan…" she breathed. I squeezed her and rocked her back and forth.

"Yeah, it's me. You're safe." I kissed the top of her head and blinked away the tears of relief that burned my eyes. "You need to absorb my healing factor, okay?" I whispered, my lips against her ear. She tensed and tried to pull away from me, but she was still too weak. She collapsed back onto me and I felt her head shake against my chest.

"No, you've gotta…heal still…" she moved her head awkwardly, but I held her tighter. "You're hurt…" I moved my hand to grasp hers where it was curled between us.

"All better, darlin'. Don't need my powers right now. Here, feel…" I moved her hand back and forth across my stomach. She scowled against my chest, and lifted slightly to look down. The effort was too much, and her head dropped back onto me.

"All better?" she asked, her voice thick. I squeezed her hard again.

"Take my powers, Anna. Don't be stubborn." Thought for a second she was gonna fight me again, girl never seemed to be able to just do what I told her to do without mouthing off about it, but soon enough I felt the slow trickle of her absorption power flow down the length of me. She thawed instantly in my arms, and I let myself relax for a while, letting my powers heal us both. I knew it was probably wrong, but it felt real good having her warming body pressed against mine. She just felt like she belonged in my arms. I absently stroked her hair, and she began to breathe normally, her heartbeat steadying. She sighed and melted against me, her long fingers running feather light touches across the sensitive skin of my newly healed abdomen.

I should have rolled her off of me right then and there, would have been the right thing to do, what a guy who was just her friend would have done. Having her naked body draped across mine definitely crossed some lines, stirred up a few things inside me, but I selfishly kept her close to me. On one of her passes back and forth across my stomach, her hand dipped a little lower than I expected, causing me to suddenly harden and press into her. I swallowed and tried to shift away from her, to apologize, but she moved with me. Her skin was abruptly flushed and warm and she kept herself pressed against me. The air had become thick with the smell of her unexpected arousal and I started losing control. Her light touch moved down again and I groaned. She grasped me in her hand and started stroking me, and I should have stopped her, but I wanted her and I let her keep going. She kissed my chest and worked a burning trail down my body. I was fucking helpless. Her tongue ran the length of me, taking my breath away. Her smoldering green eyes looked up from what she was doing to me and she smiled.

"Stop…please…" I choked out deliriously before I lost it. She pulled back like I had slapped her, and her scent shifted to angry, confused. She backed away, her eyes wide, and I realized my mistake. She thought I was pushing her away, when what I wanted was to take her, to make her scream my name and writhe underneath me. "No, Anna, wait…" I stood up on my knees and reached for her, but she slapped my hand away. Her eyes fierce, she tried to untangle herself from me and the fur and stand. I caught her around the waist and pulled her roughly back to me, held her tightly and crushed her lips with mine. I ran my hands up and down her back and pulled her hips against me, bit and kissed my way down her neck and into the hollow of her throat. She moaned and gave in to the heat between us, parted her legs for me, and I rocked my hips forward and slid my length along her wetness, moved a hand to her breast and brought my mouth down to tease her hardened nipple. Her breath was ragged and I leaned us back onto the fur, her over me. If she was ready, then so was I. I fucking needed it, needed her. I didn't want to fight whatever this was anymore, couldn't fight her, not after I had almost lost her. All thoughts of home and the people we had left behind disintegrated. All that mattered was her. She straddled me and I ran my hands up and over her breasts and stomach, my fingertips soaking up every inch of her. We locked eyes and she brought herself down over me, her eyes daring me to stop, calling my bluff. I folded first, grabbed her hips and pushed into her, hardly believing what was happening. Being in her, it felt like coming home. I let her set the pace and she moved slowly at first, her lips parted, eyes dreamy as she enjoyed herself. I moved my hand under her where our bodies were joined and ran my thumb against her, made her moan low and roll her eyes back into her head. She was so wet, so hot, the smell of her…I dug my fingers into her hips and took over, pounded into her wildly, watching her breasts bounce furiously with our rhythm. We were both groaning and breathless, moving against each other but together, hands and lips and teeth searing scars of passion across our skin. I smelled the change in her, felt her start to tighten around me in an overpowering need. I bucked my hips up to meet hers at a blinding pace, begging to make it last longer, but unable to hold out anymore.

"Oh…Logan…." she moaned, breathless. "Oh…" She came hard in a shuddering spasm and I followed right after her, screaming her name.


	12. Chapter 12

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

Author's note: Flag on this chapter for mature content

**Rogue**

I woke slowly, warm and content in a blanket cocoon. For a split second, my sleep addled brain thought I was home. Home. What a beautiful word. I opened my eyes expecting to see the alarm clock and photographs I kept next to my bed, but was greeted instead by the glittering stone walls of an alien cave. I ran my fingers along the soft fur wrapped around me. It was thick, insulated as well as a sleeping bag. Actually smelled sort of good, like Logan. 'Spose it would, he had been rolling around in it all week. My face burned as memories of last night washed over me. I covered my mouth with my hand and buried my face against the fur to hide the huge shit-eating grin that played at my lips. Had that really happened?

Last night had been mind-blowing, the man's reputation well-deserved, but what now? My stomach knotted in response to my mind's question. I frowned, the realization that I was alone creepin' over me like a cold chill. I sat up slowly and tucked the fur under my arms. The fire was going for warmth, not light. The daytime sun played tricks with the cave's shadows around me. His clothes and boots were gone and his scent was cold. I sighed and ran my hand through my tangled hair. Jesus H. Christ, I had really fucked things up between us, hadn't I? I had thrown myself at him, repeatedly, out of, what? Desperation? Loneliness? Or what? Love? Was that what pushed the air out of my chest lately whenever I looked at him? I had myself pretty convinced of that fact, of that love, before I sailed ass over feet into the river. Oh, god, he had saved me. Again. I was such an idiot, had nearly drowned trying to recover my stupid cell phone. The chill became a sick swim in my stomach, Remy's smile on the cracked glass screen flashing before my eyes. Remy. Logan. Two men, two very different men, and I loved them both. I knew Remy loved me, always would, and I felt the same, but that didn't mean we were good for each other. That was just how it was with us, we each bore the scars of loving the other. But what would he say, what would he think of this if we made it home? And Logan? What about Ororo, if the rumors were true? She was one of my oldest friends and I hadn't let myself consider her or her feelings. I didn't even know where I stood with him, was truthfully scared of the answer. He had politely pushed me away, trying not to hurt my feelings on more than one occasion, and I had stuck his dick in my mouth. I groaned and buried my face in my hands. Pathetic, girl. Just pathetic.

I smelled him before I heard his footsteps on the rocks below. His outline filled the entrance to the cave and I was suddenly unsure and scared, my heart rapid firing in my chest. I smiled weakly up at him. He stepped inside and shook off his battered leather jacket. He looked good, his color was back to normal and he didn't move like he was in any pain. He had shaved his beard after half of it had been wiped away by that creature, looked like himself again. Jesus, he smelled so good, musty and woodsy, deep. I wanted to reach out for him, put my arms around him, but I sat frozen.

"Hey," he said easily and draped his jacket on the rocks next to my clothes. My stomach clenched in nervous tingles, and I held onto the edge of the blanket across my chest.

"Hey," I swallowed hard. Oh god, he looked so uncomfortable. I had made a huge mess of everything, probably completely destroyed our friendship. "Logan," I began, fumbling. "Last night, I'm so sorry, I had no right to…" He stalked towards me and swallowed my apology with a bone-crushing kiss that turned my insides to jelly. My anxiety sent my heart hammering into my throat at a wildly staggered rhythm that I knew he could hear. He moved his mouth to my neck and the pleasure pooled warm and low inside me. His voice was hoarse, insistent in my ear.

"Darlin', don't you dare take back what happened between us." He pulled me painfully tight to his chest and dug his fingers into my shoulder blades as he spoke. "Only gonna' say this once, Anna," he pulled back slightly and grasped the sides of my face with his hands, his eyes scorching into mine. "I _wanted_ you." I saw fear in his eyes for just a second, fear at what I would say next. I released my hold on the fur and it slipped down to my waist. I stroked one hand down the side of his cheek where his ear had grown back, so damn happy to have him here with me, whole. Whatever was happening, our feelings, Remy, Ororo, we'd deal with the consequences later. All that mattered in that moment was him.

With my other hand I grabbed ahold of the front of his flannel shirt and pulled him back to my lips. Dropping my hand from his face to his chest, I set to work on his buttons. He moaned against my lips and took my lead, practically tearing the clothes from his body between kisses, breaking away from me only as he pushed his jeans off. He crawled back towards me, grinning wolfishly, and I flipped the fur blanket back, inviting him in. His eyes were wild, a hint of the animal glinting in their depths. He raked his gaze up and down my body, his stare burning my flesh, sending that low, slow warmth throbbing inside me. He inhaled and growled deep in his throat. I leaned back and he pounced. His weight pressed against me, heavy and hard and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He took his mouth away and wrapped his arms around my back. Watching my eyes, he slowly entered me. We exhaled and shuddered against each other, the feeling confirmation that last night hadn't been a dream. Leaning his forehead against mine, he held himself there, pulsing inside me. I held tightly to his back and he shoved deeper inside me, grinding his hips against mine. Slippery and thick, he pressed harder, faster, his muscular form coiled tightly against me. Our breathing became erratic and I dug my fingers into his back as he worked a steady rhythm, both of us slick with sweat. Bracing himself on one arm he gripped my hip with the other and picked up the pace, hammering into me mercilessly. Awash in the sensations steaming beneath my skin I actually wailed and it drove him faster and faster. The tingling pulsing low down spread along my arms and legs, pushing me higher as he bucked against me, his thrusts making me explode inside. His groan was wild, inhuman. He finished hot and wet inside me, and we collapsed against each other in a contented tangle of arms and legs.

**Sam**

Stepping off the metallic stairs of the newly commissioned Blackbird I smiled, inhaling the comforting smell of jet fuel, and puffed my chest out like a proud peacock.

"You handled yourself well today, Samuel." Ororo touched my shoulder tentatively as she descended behind me. I nodded my thanks, but didn't give her anything else. Things were awkward and uncomfortable around the mansion these days; lines had been drawn in the sand. More of the X-Men and students had found out about the circumstances surrounding Storm and Gambit's changing relationship. Some were pissed, some thought that it was about time for the two of them. Me? I was civil towards them, was all right working with them, fighting by their side, but any respect I had for them personally was long gone. I knew that ultimately the final judgment wasn't going to be mine, that they would have their come to Jesus moment the second we found Anna and Logan. Ororo smiled sadly at me and dropped her hand, walked towards the entrance to the school's underground levels.

"Yeah," Bobby punched my arm where Storm had touched it. "Did real good, Guthrie!" I grabbed for him, but he was too fast for me and laughed while he ran for it. Jerk. I would get him later, nothing was gonna spoil my mood today. I was back on the roster, an X-Man again. We had just returned from my first mission, some routine garbage with the Friends of Humanity, and it had gone well. The Doc had finally cleared me for active duty and I had chosen to stay here in Westchester instead of returning to the Avengers for the time being. A little stab of guilt threatened to derail my good mood when my thoughts turned to Lila. She was part of the reason I hadn't returned to New York City, she and Anna and Logan.

Lila's recovery was progressing, just still not as quickly as everyone wanted. She was free of the worst effects of the Purifier's weapon, her system finally purged of the power damaging peptides, but she had been really reluctant to test her celestial scale teleportation powers. Could see why she would be a little scared. My powers took me into the air, hers took her across the galaxy. What if something went wrong? I had tried to be supportive and to protect her from the pressure the rest of the team was applying. They could all back off until she was damn good and ready, no matter how bad I wanted to rescue our friends.

Rachel had been amazing. While Lila was physically recovered by all accounts, emotionally she was still a wreck. Rachel, bless her, had been working with my girl around the clock, keeping her distracted and interested in anything that would take Lila's mind off of her current situation. I would never say a bad word about that telepath again. Rachel had somehow convinced Hank to help her and Lila reroute Cerebro's functions through a program they developed for the Danger Room, a 3-D model of the galaxy that reminded me of the opening sequence to Star Trek: The Next Generation, y'know, where the ship flies through the solar system, through cosmic clouds and asteroid belts? The sequence was truly amazing, interactive and intuitive. Rachel and Lila had figured out a way of combining their abilities to trace Lila's way through the galaxy using the program, searching each star system for any trace of our friends and monitoring Lila's mental reactions as they went. I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but the way Hank explained it to me, Rachel was augmenting her telepathy with Lila's sense of the endless universe to focus her powers like a laser through the cosmos, hoping to hone in our friends as her consciousness drifted by on solar winds. I had no idea Rachel was that powerful without the Phoenix, but apparently the power source of the Danger Room boosted Cerebro which in turn boosted Rachel and Lila's link. The 3-D galactic model provided a visual track through the galaxy that Hank hoped would jog Lila's memory, maybe even get her excited about using her powers again.

I didn't want to admit it, more than likely because I was still super pissed off at him, but Gambit had been right about Lila's powers. Her unconscious mind kept a record of the where, when, and how of her portals. Great, right? No problem, Lila called up her last destination, bam, we ported in, grabbed our friends, happily ever after, right? Wrong. Surge messed with the girl's powers, amplified them beyond their normal range, beyond what she and Rachel have begun to call Lila's sensory awareness. The way Lila explained it to me, she had a map of the known universe flowing through her veins that she reached out to anytime she called up her powers. That map gave her a spatial awareness of planets and other physical objects, kept her away from black holes and such, allowing her to port in blind without getting herself killed. Problem was, Surge amped her so much that the last portal fell off the edge of her map. Wherever that portal ended, she couldn't find it, couldn't feel it. She told me it was like she was fumbling for the light switch in a pitch black room she'd never been in before. Things had been complicated further when Rogue borrowed her powers, the portal had originally started with Lila, but Anna had finished it. Even if Lila could figure out where she had been heading, there was no way to know if the destination stayed as originally intended, but it'd be a place to start. Rachel still thought the information existed inside Lila, that with enough time they would figure it out. Sweet Jesus, let her be right.

I exited the hangar and walked towards the Danger Room, punching my code into the panel to the right of the door of the control room. Dr. McCoy turned his head over his big blue shoulder at my entrance.

"Salutations, Mr. Guthrie. I assume from the grin adorning your visage from proverbial ear to ear that the mission was an unmitigated success?" I stood beside him and leaned over the control panel to peer into the Danger Room below.

"Damn right, Doc," I said, feeling good enough to have a little bounce back in my step. "Any progress here?" I asked, nodding towards the simulation running beneath us.

"It is truly difficult to voice an affirmative, but as it is the only option currently on the table…" he waved a massive paw towards the safety glass and pushed his eternally droopy eyewear up onto his nose. In the massive open space of the Danger Room millions of simulated stars frothed and danced, galaxies swirled around the vast space like stirring cream into a cup of coffee. In the center of the room hovered Rachel, using her telekinetic talent to hold Lila and herself at the breathtaking simulation's core. As we watched, specific stars would burn a brilliant red and the focus of the room would shift, narrow, zooming in like flicking your fingers on your IPhone, immersing the two women in the fabricated light of distant worlds. Even from our vantage point, high above them, I could see the longing, the joy in Lila's eyes. I knew she was frightened, frightened of what her powers could do, of what they had done, but her powers were a part of her. They defined her. The need to traverse the universe flowed through her blood in ways beyond the X-Gene that made her teleportation possible.

"Rachel's still convinced they can figure out where Lila's powers sent them?" Hank grunted in agreement.

"The young Grey, or Summers if you prefer a different nomenclature, certainly inherited her parents' collective hardheadedness. Her current approach of routing distant satellite imagery pirated from our Shi'ar connections through the Danger Room while linking to Lila's subconscious has produced mixed results. No sign of Anna or Logan, but working together the two have been able to track and identify worlds and solar systems Lila has previously teleported to." I raised an eyebrow Hank's way. "Indeed, Mr. Guthrie. Promising. Our resident telepath has identified certain markers in Lila's subconscious present when your young lady is shown familiar planetary forms, the current theory is that Rachel can perhaps track these mental impulses to trigger a response, that their created Danger Room celestial simulation will react to its current link to Lila and produce the long sought final destination of our friends."

"So they're goin' through each section of the universe, solar system by solar system? That could take them years." I hung my head, that old familiar guilt and frustration dampening my joyous mood like a baked bean fart in a coal mine.

"No need to be so optimistic, Samuel. Centuries. More, perhaps. At any rate, unless we win the theoretical lottery, it will take them more time than any of us have, save perhaps Logan." I heard for the first time weariness in the Beast's voice, a grinding tired that I had rarely seen suddenly present on his face. He turned and looked pointedly at me. "All of this work will continue to be for naught if Ms. Cheney refuses to exercise her mutant abilities, Sam. She is physically fully recovered. This may sound extremely harsh, but we have a duty to our friends and can no longer afford to coddle Lila in the benign bosom of the Jean Grey School. If she would use her powers, new plans and possibilities would open themselves wide. She could teleport a team of X-Men and begin searching the furthest points of the galaxy, Rachel could stretch the range of her telepathic tracking beyond our current Earth bound limitations." I sighed and pursed my lips in a hard, flat line. "I know you have been reluctant to push her, but the time has come for us to move if we are to offer our friends any sort of assistance." He stood and laid a big burly paw on my shoulder. "It has been too long, it is time to bring our teammates home."

**Logan**

We stayed put for a few days. With my healing factor we probably could have gotten moving right away without a whole lot of trouble, but I didn't want to take any chances. We had both come real close to buying the farm, and the fear of either one of us bein' alone on this rock twisted my guts inside out. I couldn't lose her, not now, not when we had just...I still wasn't sure how she felt. It ripped a hole in me to think of puttin' my heart out there and maybe havin' her stomp on it, but I wouldn't apologize to anyone for us bein' together.

Besides all that shit, I wasn't ready to leave the cave because I was having way too good of a time gettin' her naked. Had a few women that could keep up with the animal inside me, but Anna was different, ferocious in ways I never knew. Always had an inkling of the passion she had for life, but she had kept such a tight lid on herself for so many years. It was good to see her letting go. Her body curved alongside mine like it had been made that way, and her powers let her follow my pace. I put it to her for hours yesterday, long enough any normal woman would have begged me to stop, but she just smiled that smug smile of hers and used her power to drain off some of my healing factor and was raring to go again, just like that. One of the sexiest fuckin' things I'd ever experienced. It may seem stupid, but it felt nice to not have to hold myself back. Why didn't we do this years ago?

After one of our marathon sessions she gave me a funny, sad look and my breath caught. Figured this was the conversation I had been dreading, her tellin' me that we had made a mistake, that we needed to stop. I didn't want to hear that she still loved him.

"What?" I asked, propping myself up on an elbow, my guts churning waiting for her answer. "Something on your mind darlin'?" She chewed her bottom lip like she did when she was thinking hard.

"Yeah," she said slowly. "Us, I guess." Well, wasn't like I hadn't seen it coming.

"What, you want to talk about us?" She sighed and rolled onto her back.

"Not yet, sugar." She turned to me and smiled softly. "Not really sure what I'd say yet, y'know?" I did. We had been friends. There had been times we had been closer, time we had been on the outs, but we had always cared about each other. If we weren't here, now, stranded, would anything have ever changed between us? She loved LeBeau, I would never deny that, had since the moment they laid eyes on one another. I had to give him props, he gave himself to her when her powers were out of control, when everyone else was afraid to come near her. I knew I was a coward for not asking her where they stood, but she hadn't pushed me on Ororo, so I decided to give her the same space. Bottom line, she and LeBeau weren't together when we left Earth, and hadn't been for quite a while. He had let her go, fuck, he had dumped her, sent her running to that bastard Magneto's bed, nearly costing me her friendship. He was my teammate, and I considered him a friend, most of the time, but part of me was pissed at him for tossing her away. I knew what she had told me couldn't be their whole story, but the next time I saw him I was gonna punch him in the gut. But, maybe right now, I deserved worse from him. We left it there. Figured we'd get to it, to us, when we needed to. For now, we'd see where this thing lead us. I was okay with that, always did better running on instinct anyway.

We decided to finally move on, and packed up our slowly building possessions in silence. I had gathered us a little food to replenish our stocks, but we would need to hunt more, no doubt about it. I rolled up the fur blanket, thick with our mingled smells, and tied it 'round the middle with the belt from my jeans. Rogue helped me secure it across my back, shoulder to hip, using a strap of vine as a sling.

"Ready?" I asked when I caught her giving the cave a weird, wistful look. I pulled her close to my hip with one arm and kissed her cheek.

"Yeah. Gotta keep moving, right?" She smiled and started down the rocks. There was a noticeable chill in the air, and traces of what looked like a pink-tinted frost on the plants that were sheltered under the shadows of the trees. Rogue zipped her jacket and burrowed down into it.

"Brrr…" Her breath puffed out in a tiny vapor cloud and she shivered. "Never thought I'd miss my gloves."

"Yeah." She smiled, but a look of worry passed between us. The seasons were changing on us already. I had stopped counting how long we had been here, but it had to have been months at this point. Six? More? And hadn't it been, what, a week, maybe two, since we had been sweating our asses off in the grasslands? I scowled and counted days. My memory was murky thanks to my injuries, but Rogue had said I was down and healing for five days. We had stayed for two after she had been hurt, before that was the night we had almost…nine days. Nine days ago it was steaming hot and she was bare-assed in my flannel, sitting on my lap. My pants tightened at the pretty little picture that thought brought up. I stole a sideways look at her. Was it too soon to stop and pull that dress up, bend her over?

I saw she was still shivering even after hiking a ways. The deep woods near the river were even colder, and my mind raced back to our impending problem. Winter, or whatever passed for winter on this flamin' planet, and we had no idea what to expect. On Earth, the leaves changed color and fell before the long cold, deep of winter. For all we knew, the weird ass colors we had been seeing on the spiraling trees were their fall colors. There were a hell of a lot more leaves crunching under our feet today.

"We've got a problem, darlin'," I stopped her, my voice gruffer than I had meant it to be. She stopped and tensed, sniffed the air frantically, popping her borrowed bone claws.

"What is it?" she snarled from a ferocious fighting stance. "Another one of those creatures?" I held my hands up defensively and stepped closer to her.

"Easy there, Rogue." Rogue. The name felt almost foreign rolling off my tongue after the last few days, like she was two different women: Rogue, my friend and teammate, and Anna, the woman I had taken to my bed. I winced inwardly. It wasn't fair to try and separate her like that just to ease my conscience and to justify my actions. The woman in front of me was now both friend and lover, and our choices were gonna have to be dealt with sooner or later "Darlin', if there was one of those bastards gunning for us, I think you probably scared 'em away." I chuckled and she retracted the claws, glaring at me as she flicked the blood from the healing wounds on the back of her hands.

"Please don't patronize me, _Wolverine_." Her face screwed up in an angry scowl, and she jabbed a finger into my chest furiously. "And don't you ever sideline me like that again! Where do you get off sending me to pick fucking carrots while you went after that thing by yourself? We're supposed to be a team! Running off on your own was about the stupidest goddamn thing you could have done! What do you think it did to me, seeing that thing tearing into you?" She was raging, hysterical, and her anger caused mine to boil over.

"Running off by myself? Like you did?" She fumed, but snapped her mouth shut. I grabbed the sides of her face fiercely. "Do you know what it did to _me_, seeing you in the river like that? Not being able to find you, thinking you had drowned?" We stared each other down, but I blinked first and pulled her roughly into my chest. "We're both right, all right, Anna? We're both hot-headed assholes who think we're bulletproof. We just have to be more careful. There's too much at stake. Agreed?" She nodded, and untangled herself from my arms.

"So, what was the problem you were talking about before I went off on you?" she asked quietly as we started walking again. I sniffed at the chilly air, could practically smell the atmospheric changes.

"Cold's moving in. And we ain't ready." The sun glittered through the thinning leaves on the trees above us. "We're gonna' have to make a decision soon: find a place to wait it out, or keep goin' and hope we don't freeze to death." The fur blanket slid and I hoisted the sling on my shoulder to move it back into position. "Shame you didn't grab more of this fur. We could use it."

"Yeah, at the time I was so scared for you, and worried something else was going to attack us, that I took what I could and bolted." She blushed in the cold. "Sure has come in handy, though." I laughed. "Do you think maybe there would be some left on the carcass, or would it have rotted too much to use?"

"Don't know. Maybe it would still be okay, it's gotten pretty cold. If it was in the shadows and the scavengers left any behind…" I shrugged. "Worth investigating. Think you can find it again?" She raised an eyebrow at me and smirked.

"Can't you, sugar?"

We made good time, and between our two noses found the clearing pretty easily. There wasn't much of a rotting smell for what was left of the creature's body, but there was something else, a different smell, something new that twisted my guts…Flamin' planet still threw curve balls at me every day. I pushed it to the back burner of my brain and circled the animal that had ripped me to shreds. The scavengers had done that and more to its body, all that was left was skin and bones, but thankfully the fur covered skin was what we were after. Amazingly, it wasn't rotted. I hadn't thought to ask Rogue how she had managed to preserve the piece we had been sleeping on. Maybe the cold cave had helped preserve it, or maybe there was something about the creature itself, maybe it didn't decay as readily as others. Would explain the lack of the smell of death in the clearing. I set to work cutting free some of the larger pieces of fur. Rogue kept her distance, and I let her. She smelled real nervous, scared. After what that thing did to me, I didn't like being back here either, that was for sure.

"It we waited it out, the winter I mean, what would we do? Stay at the cave or something?" She paced around the body at a safe distance. I grunted and tossed another length of fur on my growing pile.

"Probably not that cave. Getting to the river is too tricky with that bluff, it'd be real risky if there was snow and ice." I pulled off my leather jacket and handed it to her, warm from my work, rolled up the sleeves on my flannel shirt. "Caves by the waterfalls would be a better bet."

"That's backtracking quite a ways," she said her voice muffled on the other side of the carcass.

"There's our problem right there. Do we keep going, or find a safe place to stay?"

_"Should I stay or should I go now_…" she sang slightly off key. I rolled my eyes.

"Funny."

"That's me, sugar. Regular comedian." Her footsteps crunched, kicking their way through a pile of fallen leaves. "I liked the waterfall."

"I know you did," I said, putting as much lewdness in my voice as I could.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She sounded annoyed. I finished my cut and smiled at the salacious images that floated into my mind.

"Don't act all coy with me, darlin'. I saw just how much you liked that waterfall." She gasped and I laughed, ready to give her hell. I came around the side of the carcass and headed towards her. She was standing back towards the perimeter of the clearing, staring mutely at her feet. "S'okay, Rogue, shouldn't be embarrassed. Nothing wrong with taking care of business yourself." She didn't answer me. "Rogue?" She knelt and held a trembling hand out towards the ground. "Anna!" I closed the distance between us in a few quick steps. "What's wrong, girl?" She looked up at me, green eyes wide.

"Logan…I think we've got another problem…" She pulled her hand back and spread more of the leaves away from the area she had been kicking. I blinked, not sure I was seein' what I was seein'.

"Holy shit." A footprint. A fucking footprint, and not one of ours. She looked up at me with eyes of steel.

"What are we gonna do now, sugar?"


	13. Chapter 13

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

**Sam**

"You can do this."

Lila closed her eyes and pursed her lips, the only sound in the wide-open space of the Danger Room her heavy breathing and my racing heart. Standing with me face to face, she grasped my hands almost painfully. The time had come for a teleportation test run, just one quick jump. Nothing too taxing on the distance, we had come up with somewhere nice and familiar to her. After too much heated debate among the X-Men, I had volunteered to ride shotgun, stubbornly refusing to let anyone else take my place. Lila was my girl and needed me, and this whole mess, no matter how anyone wanted to whitewash over the facts, was my fault. 'Sides, no need anyone else going along if something went horribly wrong.

I trusted Lila with everything I had, but right now she just didn't trust herself. She had refused to use her powers up to this point, out of fear or guilt, I wasn't sure which weighed heavier on her soul, but I had managed to slowly help her come around, me and Rachel. The confidence was only gonna come back by taking the plunge and using her gift. I let her have a minute and ran my fingers soothingly over her knuckles. Over her head I caught sight of our small audience in the control booth. Hank, Rachel, and Remy eyed us apprehensively. Rachel and the Doc were seated, Rachel's face the picture of serene concentration, probably doing her best to calm Lila with her telepathic powers.

The thought occurred to me that with barely a flex of her mutant muscles Rachel could have ended this mess at any time, taken control of Lila's mind and used her teleportation powers like a puppet master pulling the strings. I shivered. Thank god for people like Rachel, people who used their power for the greater good and not solely for their own selfish purposes. Her mamma and daddy and Charles Xavier would have been real proud of the work she had been doin'.

Gambit was standing next to Hank, leaning over the control panel, one arm resting on the safety glass. He and Rachel had come to a grudging truce, the terms of which I'm sure expired the moment we had Anna and Logan safely back on Earth. In that room, I had a feeling I was looking at what would become the eventual rescue squad. More X-Men would probably want to come after our friends once Lila was up to full speed, that I was sure of, but looking at it like a leader, I knew we couldn't afford to risk more personnel, just didn't make good sense. Lila was the key and she would want me, and that was non-negotiable. Rachel was a huge help to Lila, and her tracking skills and powers, if we needed them, would be invaluable to finding Anna and Logan. Hank was our trauma team, though I hoped that wouldn't be necessary. The rest of us were fairly skilled at field medicine, but if we encountered worse, if our friends had…well it wouldn't hurt to have the Beast's skilled hands and big brains along for the ride. Gambit had his thievin' skills, stealth, and a useful offensive power, and, as much as I was still sore at him for the way things had gone down with him and Ororo, I couldn't deny that he had as much invested in this rescue mission as I did. I had eliminated other teammates in my mind for various reasons, most notably Ororo, who I knew would want to be part of the rescue mission, but, truthfully, I saw her as more of a liability. Yeah, she was headmistress of the school and needed to stay in Westchester for the students, but for me, the big reason I didn't want her was we didn't know where we were going. All we did know was it wasn't Earth, and the unknown way her elemental powers would react on an alien world was a complication I was not prepared to deal with.

But, I was putting the cart before the horse. Again. We still didn't know where our friends were, and no rescue mission could even begin the planning stages without Lila and her powers. I leaned down and kissed the top of her hands, breathing deeply the smell of her perfume.

"Sam…" her voice choked out in a thick panicky whisper. "I can't…" I pulled her hands up to rest on my chest and let her feel the thud of my heart.

"Yes, you can." Her eyes met mine for a brief second, and then snapped away. This wasn't the first time we had been through this, not the first time she had tried for a successful teleportation. I had defended her, vehemently, every time she had backed down on her previous tries, saying she just needed more time, that she wasn't ready, that we were pushing her too hard, too fast. She was beyond ready; she was just scared and that fear was holding her back. Nobody could help her but herself, and if she couldn't do this, didn't do this, she would be crippled the rest of her life, the refusal to use her powers becoming a loss the same way losing a limb or your sight would be. I couldn't have that. I turned her face towards mine with one hand under her chin, the other still clasping hers to my chest, and shifted tactics.

"When did you learn to swim, Lila?" She furrowed her brows in confusion and blinked a few times.

"What?"

"When did you learn to swim? Were you a kid? Older?"

"No, not older. A kid, I guess. I don't remember exactly how old, but it was before things went bad. What does this..?" I smiled and she stopped mid-sentence, giving me the 'Guthrie, you're crazy' look she sometimes gave me.

"Y'ever dive off the high board at the pool?" She smiled faintly.

"Oh, yeah. Loved it. The lifeguards wouldn't let you go in the deep end, or off the high board, until you could swim two lengths of the pool. As soon as they let me, you couldn't keep me from jumping." I smiled softly back at her.

"So, first time you climbed that ladder up onto that high board, bam, into the water, love at first jump?" She laughed.

"No way. Totally chickened out. Got all the way up there, peeped over the edge, and just froze. I remember this older kid was behind me…god, I think his name was Matt…Matt Nielsen…he was calling me names and I had to get on my hands and knees and crawl backwards off the board and do the walk of shame by him to get down the ladder. It was humiliating."

"But you eventually did it. What, did somebody throw you off it or something?"

"No, nobody made me. One day I just got back up there, took a deep breath and jumped." Her face screwed up, and she gave me a patronizing look. "Jesus, Guthrie, really? That was your big motivational speech?" I squeezed both her hands again, and put just a little space between us.

"What can I say? Simple is sometimes best." A tremor shook through her. "Come on girl, you can do this. I know you can do this. Show that Matt Nielsen who's boss." She closed her eyes again.

"What if something goes wrong? What if I hurt you?"

"And what if you could have our friends back home tonight?" She met my gaze and her eyes swam with the guilt that I had done my best to shield her from. It had been eight months since the attack, and every spare minute they were there, in my heart, in my head, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one tortured by their continued absence. The X-Men were missing a huge piece of their soul, and the road to their possible return had been slow and painful for everyone involved. "You can do this," I whispered and she nodded. "Just take a deep breath and jump."

For a split second I thought she had talked herself out of it again, but my heart near popped out my throat when I saw the glow of her powers surround us, felt that tug as we melted from the light into the darkness. There was a flash, and Lila sprawled onto the ground before I was aware enough to catch her. I held her dark hair from her face while she vomited onto the sand now beneath our feet.

"It's all right, we're all right," I rubbed small circles on her back and looked at where we had landed. Like we had discussed, we appeared to be on some distant beach. It was night, the water near us illuminated by two identical crescent moons hanging low in the sky. We were alone, but in the distance I could see the glittering lights of a city, the shapes forming alien buildings that reached for the night sky. "We made it, Lila." Away from any potential collateral damage, just like we had planned. Lila wretched again.

"Peachy…" She mumbled and spat into the sand. I put my arms around her.

"Can you stand?"

"Don't know…maybe…"I helped her to her feet and she slumped heavily against me.

"Maybe not?" I gingerly sat her back down, her small frame thick against me.

"Jus' need a few…minutes…" Her labored breathing steadied while I held her. The more I looked around, the more familiar the place looked. The memories smacked me upside the head.

"You brought me here before! I've been here, haven't I?" Long time ago. Bit younger, lot stupider, one hell of a weekend with the great thief and rock star Lila Cheney. "Lila?" I shook her gently, but she was fast asleep against me,snoring softly. "Shit." I settled back with her on the sand, figured she had earned herself a snooze. I'd wake her soon,didn't let myself think of what would happen if I couldn't. In the meantime, I watched the suns come up, trying my best to send good thoughts to our surely worried friends halfway across the galaxy, waiting for our return to the Danger Room.

**Rogue**

Logan angrily cleared more leaves, cursing loudly with each new found step. A path began to reveal itself, and he crouched low over the tracks, inhaling deeply. The footprints were barely bigger than your average human male, maybe the equivalent of a size 16, the heel narrow, the toe bed wider and slightly triangulated.

"C'mere, darlin'," he gestured, pulling me close to him and down towards the ground. I could hear his heart thudding, each hammering beat a match for mine. His eyes were icy blue intensity as he spoke, his breath hot and urgent in my ear. "What do you smell?"

Damn me for being a lousy student. Using his senses every day hadn't gained me any skill or finesse, I still felt like a toddler taking shaky steps, but I bent low and sniffed, tasted the flavor of the air and the ground.

"I smell…you…"_ leather, musk, that comforting deep woodsy smell that made heat flush through me_ "…leaves, the trees…" _dry, crunchy, decaying and dirty, but sharp_ "…the cold…" _frost where it was still shadows, water where I could taste the sunlight_ "…birds…"_ feathers, the motion of the breeze_ "…fur…"_ the creature's body, but something else, something warm, alive_. I was frustrated, if there was something he wanted to ask me, why didn't he just goddamned…I froze when my nose caught ahold of something that shouldn't have been there. Eyes wide but confused, I looked up at Logan. "Salt?" I inhaled deeply and swirled the smell through my throat and onto my tongue. Salt wasn't quite it, wasn't enough of a description. "Logan, it smells like the ocean." He nodded solemnly.

"It's layered all over these tracks, along with something else that I can't quite…" he sniffed the ground again furiously. "Whatever that something else is, that unknown smell? That's what this thing stinks like. Remember it, soak it in." He grabbed ahold of my wrist and squeezed hard. "Look at those tracks, Anna. The gait, the spacing? This thing walks like a man, its humanoid." He was excited, that action junkie lust thick on him, but there was also the faint smell of worry, of panic coloring the edges of him. I stood slowly and hugged myself in the chill air. I had wanted, had needed to go home, desperately, since the moment my eyes had snapped open on this damn planet. The longer we had stayed, the more impossible some last reel rescue seemed. Being here, getting closer to Logan, everything we had shared had complicated my chest-crushing homesickness in infinitely intricate ways. Sure, we had been fighting daily for our survival, both of us nearly dying, but through all the pain and hardship and the struggle we had found something, at least I thought we had, something special and passionate and real. I wasn't sure I was ready to give it up. Like he read my mind, Logan stood and put his arms around me from behind, placed his scruffy warm cheek against mine.

"We can ignore it, darlin', if you want. We can pretend we never found these tracks, and we can turn around and walk back into those woods. Keep on going until we hit that waterfall. We could make a life there, just you and me, Anna. Us against this world. It'd be hard, but we could hunt and fish and make new clothes and soap…we could have a home on this planet, no more running." I could see it, see us, see that life he described crystal clear in my mind, and god help me, part of me wanted it, wanted it so bad I could taste it. The rest of me saw it as giving up.

"What about our friends?" He sighed and pulled me tighter, his heat and smell making me tremble. "Do we just forget about them, forget about what we left behind?"

"I know darling. Tough choices seem to be all we have left. We could hide away in our little rugged paradise, or we could go after this thing, follow its path and see if it leads us to some sort of civilization, some chance at getting back to Earth. I know it seems like a slim chance, but it's a chance. Knowing us, there's probably a better chance that following this thing will land us in a whole heap of trouble." We stood like that, him holding me, his chin on my shoulder while he rocked us back and forth, neither one of us wanting to break the spell. I turned my face towards his, touching our foreheads together.

"You want to go after this thing? This briny smelling fella?" He grunted and it rumbled my shoulder pleasantly.

"You use your powers to read my mind, Anna?"

"You know I didn't, sugar." He was quiet for a moment.

"Darlin', as nice as it sounds…playin' house with you, it seems like hiding to me."

"Then why did you suggest it?" My voice was thickening with lousy unshed tears. He turned me around in his arms and caressed my cheek with his rough palm.

"Thought maybe that was what you wanted." I was too tangled up inside to know what I wanted, but I was touched he had been willing to give that much to me. Deep down to my soul, I wanted it all: a rescue, to go home safe and sound, Logan, but I didn't know any possible way for those things to come together. Going home meant losing Logan, and that horrible realization sent torrents of hot tears trailing down my cheeks. He wiped them away and kissed me softly, a kiss of sweet longing and tenderness that nearly knocked my knees out from under me. He pulled away, his eyes suddenly sad with the promise of what might have been.

"Ready, darlin'?"

"As I'll ever be, sugar." I sniffed the tracks again while he was gathering up our fallen meager belongings. That smell, I burned that salty ocean breeze into my memory. We could be following that deep briny scent into hell, but I would do it for him, for Logan. He stood beside me, and there was so much I wanted to say to him in that moment, but I choked on the words before they even formed.


	14. Chapter 14

All characters owned by Marvel Comics.

Author's note: Things will start to move pretty quickly from here. Enjoy the ride!

**Sam**

"I'm ready! I didn't even throw up last time!"

Lila stood defiantly, hands on her hips, getting right in Ororo's face. Damn right she was ready, we were ready. The weather goddess was just pissed we didn't want her along.

"That is hardly reassuring, Lila." Storm crossed her arms and brought her fully impressive height to bear on the smaller, scrappier Lila. We were at an impasse again, seemed like emotions had been running too high at the Jean Grey School for anybody to budge or compromise when it came to this proposed rescue mission. The assembled X-Men were crammed in Storm's office again, butting heads for what seemed like the tenth time in a week concerning our long lost friends. I tapped my foot impatiently. This was getting ridiculous. We needed to go after them, we had a goddamn plan, a good one, they just wouldn't let us get on with it.

Using her teleportation powers had unlocked the final mental barrier that Lila had erected around her mind, allowing her and Rachel access to the destination of the portal she had created on the night the Purifiers attacked, the portal that had whisked Anna and Logan to a galaxy so far away we were lucky it hadn't come up and bit us from behind. It was, well, that final destination was damn far away, beyond Lila's normal range by at least double. Jesus, infinity could be a bitch. Sure, it was a longshot that the original destination of the portal was where they had finally landed, but Lila's powers had been the subject of ruthless study these last few months. Hank, Rachel, and Lila were fairly confident the portal hadn't changed course, and had calculated that it would take two huge jumps, Lila pushing herself to her absolute limit on each, in order to reach our friends. This was what had started the arguments, and it had become 'us' versus 'them', the X-Men divided right down the middle.

No denying it, Lila was still rocky after she teleported. We had been practicing, travelling to friendly and familiar star systems, but every time she jumped, she would get crazy dizzy, so wiped out all she could do was sleep, a deep sleep you couldn't wake her from until she woke herself and recovered enough to jump again. The 'us', the team I had figured on: Me, Hank, Lila, Rachel and Gambit, had found a way to work around this little snafu, and had it all ready and waiting. Rachel had contacted a friend of hers that had recently made it back to Shi'ar space, one Captain Korvus. Just so happened he and his crew owed a debt to Rogue, and apparently Korvus couldn't resist those big green eyes of Rachel's. She relayed our expected coordinates to their ship with his promise they'd be ready when we were. Their ship in position was our planned halfway point. Using their vessel as our stepping stone into the galaxy, Lila could perform one teleportation, recover onboard ship, then jump to our final destination, then do the same on the return trip.

Storm looked around the room, the 'them', those who were vetoing our plan, were her, Bobby Drake, and the rest of the X-Men, currently represented by Northstar, Colossus, and Psylocke. I tried not to be resentful of the others' position. Believe me, part of me understood it. It was a dangerous hare-brained idea, flying off into the galaxy with Lila's rickety powers was like driving a car cross country with the check engine light on and no spare tire. With so many unknowns, taking half the team to the other side of the universe to rescue two X-Men could be viewed by some as reckless. Like I said, I didn't resent the rest of them. Most of them, anyway. Bobby Drake being one of 'them'? That one sure stung.

Ororo continued in her deep, regal voice. "There is not a soul here who does not wish to see our friends returned home, but I will not endanger more of us on a mission that is very unlikely to succeed."

"You act like there isn't even a chance!" Rachel cried. "We have to at least try!"

Peter Rasputin, the big shiny Russian Colossus, laid a mammoth hand on my shoulder. "Rogue and Wolverine would not want you to risk your lives in such a manner, my friends." I swallowed my anger and shrugged his hand off.

"That's garbage and you know it, Pete!" I jumped to my feet, coming to stand behind Lila. "If anyone else had been missing, those two would have been the first to sign up for their rescue! Hell, Psylocke, Logan pulled your fat out of the fryer all those years ago in Japan when he wasn't even sure you were you!" Elizabeth Braddock, the ninja telepath/telekinetic Psylocke suddenly found the floor more interesting than meeting my eyes. "If it had been me trapped halfway round the galaxy, and they were the ones here? I'd 'a been rescued six months ago, because neither of them would have put up with this pussy footing around!"

"Guthrie," Northstar levelled a stern look at me and crossed his arms. "We know how passionate you all feel about this, but the fact remains that this mission is a greater exposure than the X-Men can currently afford." I was ready to spit nails at Jean-Paul, but my intended tirade was interrupted.

"I understand everyone's well-meaning, if frankly misplaced, concern," Hank was hanging upside down from the ceiling in the corner of the office, his fingertips tented in front of him. "As discussed in previous meetings of the minds, our team is well prepared, as prepared as the X-Men ever are before gallantly charging to the rescue. Captain Korvus and his misfit crew are patiently awaiting word from Rachel, and will be at the designated coordinates, ready to accommodate five travel weary mutants while Ms. Cheney recharges her teleportation batteries. When she is rested and revived, she will make the second jump. We will locate our long missing friends through whatever means are required to accomplish the mission, and we will return home, two X-Men, or Avengers if you prefer, heavier."

"You make it sound so goddamned easy, Blue," Bobby Drake, who had remained oddly silent up to that point, sounded uncharacteristically bitter from where he sat on one of the sprawling brown leather sofas positioned in front of the bookshelves lining the walls. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "Yeah, Lila and Rachel figured out what planet they're on, but you guys don't know what to freaking expect, you can't know! It could go to hell in the blink of an eye! What if there's dinosaurs or the planet's crawling with cannibal ax-wielding alien maniac zombies? You have no fucking clue what you're getting yourselves into! This mystery world could be covered in fire or ice or Ewoks or marshmallows…and, what nobody wants to admit, is that this could all be for god damned nothing! Rogue and Wolverine could be…could be…" he choked and put a hand over his mouth to cover the sound.

"Rogue and Wolverine could be dead."

Ororo spoke the words Bobby couldn't, her simple statement silencing the room. She stepped to the window behind her desk and turned away, facing the grounds of the school that were just coming back to life after the long winter. Lila leaned back on me, her body heavy with guilt. Gambit uncurled his long frame from where he had quietly perched on the arm of a sofa next to Rachel. He walked forward with his usual feline grace, the burns he had received from the Purifier's mystery weapons now just a memory, and touched Ororo's shoulder. My stomach still twisted to see them together, but most of the others had come to accept it. Life went on when you lived like we did. Rachel's glare at his backside, caught over my shoulder, told me I wasn't the only one who still felt the betrayal.

"Stormy…Ororo," he said gently, and the room held its collective breath. Despite he and Storm's relationship, which had become pretty serious according to school gossip, Remy had still been one of 'us', staunchly pushing the rescue mission forward, working just as hard at our intergalactic preparations as he had in working to bring down the Purifiers. I was still honked off at him, but would always be grateful for his invaluable perspective. No wonder the man was a world class thief. He had thought of things, contingencies, that none of the rest of us had even dreamed of. We were in the position we were in because of him.

"If that's truly the case, if Logan and…and Anna… are dead? I need to know, chere. I won't live the rest of my life without knowing what happened to them." Ororo turned her head towards him and I caught the whisper of a sad smile on her lips.

"To her, you mean." He touched her cheek softly and nodded. "Still?" she asked, the bald passion in that one word shockingly intimate in front of so many people.

He ducked his head solemnly, but when he raised it again, the earnestness was gone, replaced by that Cheshire-cat grin he gave all the ladies. It hadn't been quite fast enough to cover the rawness etched on his face. He did love Anna. Maybe he wasn't a big fat liar after all, just a dirty cheat. "Trust us, Stormy. Trust me." She smiled wryly. The seriously heavy emotions shattered for the moment, she turned to face us.

"You are determined to do this? The five of you, charging off into the universe?" I squared my shoulders.

"Yes, ma'am." She nodded, resigned. The others began to move restlessly, their cause lost.

"Very well. I agree with the division of the team. The powers and personalities seem appropriate, though I wish it was not necessary to include Lila. Unfortunately…" She waved a graceful long-fingered hand airily, dismissing the thought. "I want mission specifications on my desk tomorrow. We shall go over your preparations with a fine-toothed comb, and if there is anything I find not to my liking, if there is any discord amongst the five of you…" her rock hard blue eyes found each and every one of us, reminding me why she had been chosen as the X-Men's leader. "Find our friends, bring them home. Trust in each other, we cannot afford mistakes." Bobby Drake jumped to his feet.

"Just like that? The Cajun charms your panties off, and you're good to go? This is bullshit!" An angry Remy stepped murderously towards Bobby, but I jumped around Lila and shoved myself between them.

"Whoa boys, settle down now!" I thumped each of them in the chest. "Everybody's a little excited here, why don't we just take one big step back?" Gambit muttered some insult in French, and it riled Bobby up even more. I had to turn and hold him back, Peter finally getting off his big metal behind to back me up. "What the hell, Bobby? Don't you want her rescued?" I really didn't get it. Rogue was his friend, there had been a time they had been _best_ friends. Where was this anger coming from? Didn't take long for me to get my answer.

"Not by him," he spat at Gambit. "He doesn't deserve to be her hero." He shrugged off my arms and slammed the office door on his way out.

**Logan**

I saw 'em first, and clamped my hand over her big mouth before she had a chance to scream, yanked her down in a crouch between my legs. Her growl was muffled behind my hand, and I hissed in her ear, duck-walking us backwards into the shadows of the trees.

"Shhh!" She struggled and ground her little ass against me to get free. Any other time, I would have been bouncing her on my lap after moves like that, but I shook her slightly. "In the river," My voice was just a breath in her ear, and she stiffened. I felt her swallow a scream. The tracks we had been following for two days had doubled a couple miles back, two briny-smelling bastards walking side-by-side through the barely frozen muck along the bluff tops that hovered over the river bank. Coming around that last bend we had eyes on the river below, a clear view of a bit further downstream. Two creatures, the humanoids we had been tracking, were in the water, moving around what looked like an upside down canoe striped in graphic yellow and orange. Even with my enhanced senses we were too far away to get a real good look, but they were tall, taller than us, and just as solidly built. We needed to get closer, figure out what we were dealing with.

"Y' all right?" I whispered in Anna's ear. She nodded sharply, once, and I released her mouth. I caught her eyes and nodded us forward. We moved, kept low through the trees, looking for a better vantage point. I cringed at every snap of a branch, every pull of dried leaves across her leather jacket. All this time rolling with me, and she was still so goddamned noisy. I should have just picked her ass up and carried her, would have been quieter even if she had been squirming against me. That thought brought a fresh hard-on that I had to will away as we kept going. What was wrong with me? We were charging into a potentially dangerous situation, and couldn't afford me being distracted. But right now? Looking at Anna? All I wanted do was to forget everything but her, to wrap her legs around my waist and pound that ass against the trunk of a tree, get her hot and wet and moaning…Shit, I was gonna get us killed if I didn't focus.

The bluff cut down in a sharp hill, decreasing the distance between the briny-bastards in the river and us. We stopped in the shadows, Anna craning her neck over my shoulder. I held my breath as for a horrible moment there wasn't two of them, only one. Her mouth found my ear when the other reappeared.

"They're diving for an awful long time," she murmured. Damn, she was right. They were circling their craft where it floated in the water, then one of them would disappear beneath the surface. I counted the seconds when the next one bobbed below the water, gave up when I hit seven agonizing minutes. "What are they, part fish?" She was joking, but I turned and looked at her, the smirk on her face shifting when her thoughts went the same direction as mine. We were still too far away to see details on their bodies, but why not? Humans descended from apes, the Shi'ar from birds, why couldn't another planet's species have mackerel for their great-great grandparents? It would sure as hell explain their smell, maybe even explain why we hadn't seen cities or pollution or any other vehicles. If they were fish, maybe they lived underwater? We had only been in the one river so far, the water not deep enough to travel by boat. If these guys had traveled upstream from the ocean or another larger body of water…

I motioned for her to stay put. Her face twisted and she bared her teeth angrily, shaking her head. The auburn and white curls that had dislodged from the thick braid trailing over her shoulder bounced and caught traces of the sunlight. Stubborn ass! Of all the times for her to dig her heels in! I returned her furious glare, and our eyes locked in silent argument. She didn't back down, but I finally gave in. Getting soft in my old age, I guess. We crept along the downward slope together, coming dangerously close to compromising our position for the chance at a better look at our quarry. If we were going to try and communicate with them, we needed to observe them. Asking for their assistance still looked to be our best chance for a rescue, though the cold fear in my gut told me we were chasing rainbows.

One of them stood on the top of their vessel, the boat reminding me of the top of an ornate submarine. Bands of yellows and oranges were painted on its surface, zig-zagging along its shiny curves. The creature balanced easily, almost gracefully, on the craft's hull. It was tall, 'bout six foot, but sleek, wiry. Its body was slim, but heavily muscled. Its head was a wet greenish color the shade of day old seaweed, and it looked to be wearing a clear mask of sorts around the lower part of its face. No hair, but wide eyes under a heavily jutting brow bone. Its body was covered in what looked to be a wetsuit, colored a deep, dark brownish red, the color of clotted blood. Anna's cold fingers dug painfully into my arm, and her green eyes were wide as she watched the humanoid raise its hand, five webbed fingers ending in inch long curved claws, to its face. It removed the mask that had been obscuring its mouth. She had been right. Beneath the mask its resemblance to its aquatic ancestors was real fucking apparent. Wide fishy lips, no nose, hooded wide eyes the size of golf balls. Small fins fanned out where ears would have been on a human. Not scaly, but ridged like a crocodile, its mouth gulped for air for a heartbeat before it dove into the water, its sleek body barely making a ripple.

Anna tugged insistently on my arm, and I whipped my face towards her, ready to snarl at her. She grabbed my face wildly and yanked me into her. "Where the fuck is the other one? Did you see it go into the water?" She hissed frantically. Fuck. I hadn't. It had surfaced after my seven minute count to join its friend, and then I had been so busy checking out the one on top of the craft that I had lost sight of its buddy.

I felt it before I smelled it, a burning push that cut its way through the air. I shoved Anna's body hard away from me, sending her tumbling ass over head before the blaster bolt fried the ground where she had been sitting. I rolled and jumped into a fighting stance, saw her do the same. I sniffed, my eyes trailing over the trees, that salty smell rolling over us from the deep of the woods, but I couldn't see where, couldn't find him! The dead leaves rustled over my head in the second Anna screamed my name. I popped my claws and turned in the same motion, catching ahold of the business end of a mean looking staff before it connected with my skull. I fell back, the briny-bastard landing on my stomach, heavier than he looked, knocking the breath out of me. It stood quickly, faster than I anticipated. Dislodging its weapon from my claws, he swung it around for another blow. The weapon was the length and heft of a quarter staff, but the ends fanned out into sharp blades surrounding an ugly blaster chamber. It shot laser rounds the size of volleyballs, the grips and triggers splitting the length of the staff into thirds. Whatever the weapon was made of, some sort of black armor plating wrapped the surface from tip to tip. My claws hadn't even scratched the damn thing. Luckily the six of them held fast on the next chopping blow, kept him from slicing my neck open with those blades that looked to be honed out of the same slick black material that plated the staff. The briny-bastard's mouth contorted in rage behind its breather, a gurgling sound causing its gills to fan out along the sides of its neck. It pushed the staff hard against my claws, inching it and them towards my face.

"Not real neighborly of you, sugar," Anna's slender hands curled around the creature's face from behind, and its eyes bulged even further from its head, her power pouring over him in painful waves. He convulsed, gurgled and dropped like a stone onto my chest. She let go of him and flicked her fingers. "Slimy little fella," she scowled and helped me roll him and his blaster staff off me, sat me up.

"Good move. Nice. Didn't even hear you come up." I rubbed her back as she helped me get to my feet. Anna ran her fingers lightly along the cuts my own claws had made on my throat, but they were already closing.

"Close shave?" she smirked, our back and forth banter reminding me for one sweet second of the Blue Team, and the unstoppable force that had been Rogue and Wolverine, barreling in when the job needed doing. She caught my eyes but hers weren't hers, not their usual emerald green. Instead the color had faded to the pale sickly cabbage green of the creature she had absorbed.

"Did you get anything from it?" She grimaced.

"I pulled pretty hard, but didn't get a lot of his memories. Wasn't sure what it would do to me…" I knew she was still squeamish with what her absorption powers could do. At its best, her power allowed her a connection, a oneness with another being that even the best telepaths couldn't achieve. At its worst, she was overwhelmed, subverted, losing control of her mind and body. She had some pretty rough experiences absorbing aliens in the past, and I hated to push her on it, but we needed any information she could get us.

"I hate to ask you…" She held a hand up to stop me.

"It's okay. I should have just grabbed it all on the first touch. Just wanted to make sure you were safe, in case…" She smiled stiffly and kneeled beside the unconscious creature. "Here goes." She was trembling but the hand she placed on its forehead was firm, determined, while she gathered her information. "They're hunters…soldiers…" she whispered. "Home is an endless ocean…beautiful…dark…sparkling sunlight from above….they're far from their home…conquering, exploring. They rule this planet…top of the food chain..." Her eyes were watching distant places in her mind. "They move up the rivers, take what is not theirs…something has been following them…something strange, something alien…they…" her voice caught and she moved a slim white hand to her throat. Alarmed, I crouched at her side.

"Anna? What is it, darlin'?" Her eyes, still that strange, sick color, were wide in terror and she clawed at the side of her neck. I gripped her hand and pulled it away from her throat where newly formed gills puckered and gaped. A gurgling, popping noise escaped her throat, but she was suffocating, choking on the air.

"Let it go! Just let him go!" Even as the words were out of my mouth I knew she couldn't, that the alien's DNA was winding its way unchecked through her system, changing her beyond her control. I felt the heat of an alien blaster bolt again and threw myself over her writhing body to shield her. The bolt exploded against my backside with enough force to send me and Anna flying over the top of the prone body of our first assailant, the two of us rolling fifty yards across the frosty leaf strewn ground. It felt like being hit by a truck, and if not for my adamantium laced skeleton, it would have shattered my spine. I couldn't let her get clipped by that thing. My leather jacket had melted and burned a hole in the meat beneath, my power working to seal the seared flesh as I got to my knees and struggled to stand. The second creature, the one we had been studying on top of their vessel, must have come looking for his friend. He was on us, and from behind furiously stabbed my gaping wound with the bladed end of his staff, my unbreakable ribs the only things that stopped it from running me straight through. Anna screamed in mute horror even as she was gasping for breath, her face turning an unnatural purple from the lack of oxygen. I roared, spun round with the creature still holding tightly to the weapon embedded in my back. I slashed an arc with my claws, connecting them to its flesh and bone. The creature hissed in agony. Holding its shredded arm, it kicked my side and I fell backwards, the staff catching on the ground behind me, driving it deeper. I howled and rolled onto my side, saw Anna scrambling for air, crawling towards the other creature's breather. Though her body moved for a fresh breath, her eyes moved towards the first creature's discarded blaster staff. I reached awkwardly behind me and pulled on the gigantic knife in my back, felt the staff give way in a great suck of flesh and blood. I rolled to my feet, lurched towards where Anna and the second creature were facing off, playing tug-o-war over one of the blaster staffs. She had the breather over her mouth, but she was shaky and I was too flamin' slow. He wrenched the weapon from her, pulled it towards him with both elbows bent, then extended one arm lightning fast, cracking her in the head with the end of the staff. She crumpled in a heap at his feet. The other end it leveled at me and fired, catching me square in the chest. Hot suffocating pain swallowed my core. Stupid me, standing too close to the bluff. It fired again and I vaulted out and over the river, unconscious before I hit the water.


	15. Chapter 15

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

**Sam**

I let her sleep as long as she needed, but I could feel the impatience like a physical force pushing through the air vents of the spacecraft. Truth was, I was pretty damned impatient myself. It was torture sitting there and watching her sleep, willing her awake with every breath. I had been on enough of her test runs to know that she would wake up when she could, she would be knocked out anywhere between three and ten hours depending on the distance of the teleportation. Was gonna make the next jump real problematic, but there wasn't much to be done about it now. We were committed.

We were teleporting into the exact spot Anna and Logan had landed all those months ago, but we had no idea what to expect of the planet beyond it being habitable. We were still way too far away for the ship's sensors to tell us any specifics. One of the pluses of Rachel, Hank, and Lila studying her powers and past destinations for all this time was the discovery that Lila's teleportation powers unconsciously honed in on worlds that could handle and sustain humans: breathable air, gravity just about right, tolerable temperatures. Not paradises, mind you, but sustainable. That revelation sent a collective sigh of relief through the school, but sustainable didn't mean free of danger. Lila was going to port us in and drop pretty much unconscious while the rest of us began the search for our missing friends. None of us knew for sure what this place was going to look like, or what we would face where the portal materialized on this mystery world, or if Anna and Logan would be anywhere near it. There were any number of really valid reasons why they would have moved on from their original teleportation destination. Who knew what they had tackled in nine months' time, or what was waiting for us. I threw back the sheet and pulled on my sweats and a t-shirt. I couldn't just sit there. I needed to do something, anything, to keep my mind off of them.

I kissed Lila's forehead, and headed for the storage bay. We were staging our next jump from there, figured I would go over the supplies we had brought with one more time. Nobody else was roaming the halls, Captain Korvus's crew was pretty small and had been keeping to themselves so far. It made me a little twitchy working with people I barely knew for something this important, especially considering their backgrounds, but Rachel fiercely vouched for Korvus and I trusted her.

I passed Hank in the ship's sickbay. He waved as I walked by, looking about as ready to chitchat as I did. His face was determined but nervous, and he looked to be packing up a portable first aid kid to take with us. Was sure we each had one in our backpacks already, but the aliens probably had a few technological upgrades we hadn't gotten yet.

The storage bay's doors swished open to reveal Gambit sitting cross-legged on the cold metal floor, the contents of his pack laid out and carefully arranged in front of him. He lifted his dark eyes and nodded my direction, the doors sliding shut behind me in a muffled hiss.

"She's still sleeping," I offered him, knowing it would be his first question. "You couldn't?" He raised an eyebrow at me. "Sleep, I mean. You couldn't sleep?"

"Non." Guessed he wasn't in the mood to chat either. I found my pack and flopped onto the floor near him, proceeding to empty my bag for what seemed like the tenth time since I had packed it. First aid kit, rations, potable water kit, insulated blanket, hunting knife, flashlight, matches, hand sanitizer, spare bodysuit. We had come prepared, but packed light. I didn't know if we would have to camp or hike, or for how long. If we started to run short on food and supplies, if we had to search for them for too long, Lila would have to risk another jump back to the ship to restock us. Korvus said they would wait as long as we needed them to, but no one had yet asked what would happen if we couldn't find our friends, or how long we would look for them. My stomach swam and nervous tingles traveled up my arms and legs. Had they given up hope on us? It had been so long…

"Hey, you okay, Samuel?" Gambit touched my shoulder and I blinked, shuddering out of my bad thoughts.

"Yeah, I think so." I sighed, not really wanting to open up to him, but suddenly drowning in hopelessness. "Just…scared, y'know? Of what we'll find?" He grunted in agreement. "I've tried to not let myself think of them being hurt…or dead…but getting ready for this rescue, going over all the what ifs, knowing that we only scratched the surface on the possibilities of what they have been facing, knowing that we're risking all of our lives…it makes me sick to my stomach. It took us too long to come for them, and it makes me feel mighty ashamed, like we abandoned them." I pinched the bridge of my nose to stop the tears that were burning my eyes. The last person I wanted to cry in front of was Gambit.

"Those two know we didn't give up on them." I held my hands up, exasperated.

"But _you_ did. You did." I hadn't talked to him about Ororo since the day Rachel and I had walked in on them. The face he pulled looked like he had swallowed something nasty.

"You gonna go all Bobby Drake on me now? This close to finishing this?" With his face still looking like it was tasting that bad taste, he started stuffing things irately back into his pack. "I fucked up. I get it. I broke up with her, sent her to that villain's bed hoping she'd get him out of her system after that BS with Haller and Moira had her head all twisted 'round. Figured I'd let her go, let her come back to me in her own time, but we never got there." His voice rose sharply, his packing rougher. "I shouldn't have to explain this to you or to anybody. I've done my penance, but I am sick of the way you all look at me, Drake especially, like I cheated on her. We weren't together, and she had made that perfectly clear. She was the one who went to somebody else, a genocidal terrorist who on occasion tried to kill each and every one of us, and y'all are willing to forgive her that, but me? I'm the scumbag. I'm the dirty cheat. I love her. I _love_ her. Every night I dream of her, and its ripping me apart inside. I can't live like this anymore, don't want to feel like this. I will always love her, but lately all she let me be is her friend, and through all this I found out that her friendship can make a man real lonely." He fumed for a minute and I let him before I spoke again.

"Do you know what you're going to say to Anna? When we rescue her?" He ran a hand shakily through his chin length hair and grimaced.

"_When_ we rescue her? Non, Samuel. I have no fucking idea." Rachel's telepathic voice intruded into our minds.

_"Lila's awake, boys. Time to get this show on the road."_

Remy zipped his backpack and stood. "Better get suited up, Sammy. Now or never." He stepped towards the doors, but I jumped up after him.

"Bobby's wrong, Remy. Even with everything that's happened, you've always been Anna's hero, her knight in shining armor." He grunted.

"Guess that's what makes it so sad, eh?"

**Rogue**

I woke up on my side, all twisted arms and legs, breathing air from lungs. I ran my hands tentatively along my neck, and swallowed in relief to find the gills gone, the skin smooth beneath my fingertips. Fresh panic stabbed through me. Logan. Where was he? I couldn't smell him, the only trace of him was his residual scent on my clothes.

'Let it go' he had said, but I hadn't, not all of it. We needed the information I had stolen from that slimy sniper, and I shuffled feverishly through it in my brain, looking around slowly at my surroundings. I was in some sort of cylindrical glass tank, like a live well on a fishing boat, only mine was filled with air, a breathable space for the captured land animals on the water logged ship. I could see out onto the bridge, but only with effort. It was dark and murky, like opening your eyes in the bottom of a lake. I saw our two attackers, seated at lighted consoles, alien numbers and symbols I was quickly forgetting flashing on screens and displays in front of them. I didn't see another air tank. I swallowed a panicked scream. Oh Jesus H. Christ. Had they killed Logan? The last thing I remembered was getting slammed in the head by the briny-bastard on the left, then nothing. Must have been a hell of a hit to totally knock me out with my borrowed healing factor working to wake me up.

Think, dammit! Remember, before you lose what you took from him. Him. They were both males of their species. Water breathers, descended from fish, scuba diving in our air just like we did in the oceans. Hunting. Soldiers, I caught flashes of floating squadrons. They were a patrol, crawling up the rivers, defending their territory…and they found us, how strange we looked to them…when the one I absorbed…his name was on the tip of my tongue, but I didn't have the vocal structures to pronounce it, or to speak their language, not in the air anyway…when he didn't return from their final sweep before returning to their boat and heading towards base, protocol had dictated his partner call for help before going to look for him. From the blips on their screen, and the pair's frantic movements swimming through the water of the bridge, they were meeting up with the rest of their squad. I had to get out of here. If they rendezvoused, took me to a base or a city, there would be too many for me to fight, and they would dissect me, cut me into little pieces. I needed to make a break for it while there was just the two of them, and while we were still in the river. If we pushed into the ocean…I wouldn't find Logan. I choked the panic down.

They weren't watching me, probably figured I would be knocked out for a while. My eyes moved around the edges of my tank. Their ship didn't look to be the most technologically advanced vessel I had ever been on, but the tank appeared to be air tight, its thick glass walls one smooth curve. No junctures or seams to wiggle my claws into, but my air had to be coming in from somewhere. I rolled onto my back, the tank wasn't wide enough at the bottom for me to stretch out my legs and my knees knocked against the heavy glass. There was a vent and fan at the top of the tank, a good ten feet above me. I couldn't jump to it, but if I could shimmy up the sides of the tank... It was narrow enough I could touch both sides with my arms stretched out, I reckoned. Then what? They would see me before my claws could damage the air vent, and I didn't know if I could cut a hole big enough for me to climb out before they hurt me or before the tank filled with water. I sighed and rolled my eyes. Were my powers really my only other option? If I could get ahold of one of them again, breathe underwater and get the other one, too, then maybe... Despair swallowed me, and the air vent blurred with hot, angry tears. He had to be all right, I refused to believe he could be dead, not after everything we had been through. I would not let it end like this. Logan! My body shook with silent sobs, the pain pouring out of me by the bucketful. A warm feeling, soft like the wings of a bird, wrapped itself around me.

_"Don't cry…"_ A familiar voice whispered faintly in my mind. I jumped sky high.

"Rachel!?"


	16. Chapter 16

All characters owned by Marvel Comics, song lyrics courtesy of the Beatles.

**Sam**

The new sky was a deep turquoise and stretched endlessly in every direction I turned. A single sun hung hugely heavy and red, low down on the horizon. I held tightly to Lila and lowered her to the ground, letting Hank and Rachel hover over her to check her vitals.

"It's cold," I whispered, sick inside. The temp was low enough I could feel it nip at the skin left exposed by my insulated uniform.

"Above freezing, thankfully," Hank replied, his furry finger feeling for the pulse at Lila's wrist.

"She okay?" Gambit asked. I craned my neck and caught a glimpse of him over my shoulder. He was slowly walking around us, the grass beneath us burned to the quick in a scarred, scorched circle. The surrounding yellowed grass stood thickly waist high.

"Hank?" I redirected the question to the Doc, though I was pretty sure I knew Lila was as okay as she was gonna be. It embarrassed her, the fact that her powers in their current state continued to drain her so completely after every use. It was a handicap, a liability, and I could practically see Ororo's stern face in my mind, chastising me, could hear a big 'I told you so' from Bobby Drake. Lila could handle this, I knew she could. We would deal with the limitations the best we could.

"She appears to be fine, merely exhausted as after every use of her power since the Purifier attack."

"Glad she's okay, but we need to move." I opened my mouth to protest, but Gambit held up a hand to silence me. "There's no cover here, no food or water that I can see for miles in any direction. No way would they have stayed put."

"Are we even certain this is where our lost X-Men landed on this planet?" Hank asked, running a handheld scanner over Lila.

"You know it is," Rachel voiced aloud. "From what we determined, her powers have the ability of pinpoint accuracy."

"Did their monster portal do this?" I gestured to the charred dead grass beneath us and shivered, remembering each cell of my body burning in exquisite agony. Rachel merely shrugged.

"Looks like some trees, quite a ways off," Gambit shielded his eyes and pointed his own scanner towards the horizon. His eyes were apparently much better than mine, I couldn't see squat besides grass, grass, and more grass. He turned and stepped towards us. "We should move, try to get going before…" There was the crunch of breaking glass beneath his feet, and his surprised eyes found mine. Rachel lifted Lila from my lap and I sprang at Gambit. He crouched low and brushed through the blackened grassy remains, his face a strange mix of relief and sadness.

"What is it?" I asked breathlessly. He pulled a thin twisted piece of metal about the size of his hand from the ground.

"Pair of Ray-Bans from the look of it." He held them aloft so Beast and Rachel could see, the silver frame glinting, but barely recognizable. "Anna likes her aviators."

"Jesus," I breathed. They were here. I swallowed my excitement.

"Rachel," Hank asked, more level-headed than me, "Do you sense anything?" The red-head concentrated and frowned slightly.

"Not with a passive scan. We seem to be the only beings with a higher consciousness in the immediate area. I have a sense of animals, but anything more would require a deeper scan. Our best bet for now would be to find water and set up camp before dark. If we get settled and relatively safe, I can take the time for a deeper look."

Gambit grunted and stood. I saw him carefully tuck the shattered sunglasses into an inner pocket of the jacket he wore, a shorter version of his usual ever-present trench coat. "Do we go on foot, or risk Rachel levitating the lot of us to those trees?"

"Tough call." I chewed my lip. "Too light out for me to fly, we'd be spotted for sure if there's anyone here to spot us, but she could keep us low enough to the grass. We'd be pretty hidden. That'd sure save time and energy for the rest of us, but would waste hers, and she's the one we need to be at top form." Rachel snorted.

"'She' is right here and 'she' is not a wuss, and wants to get this done and over with as fast as possible." She stood and brushed broken grass from her uniform. "The longer we're here, the more danger we are all in. I can get us to those trees with very little effort. Walking would take time and resources we can't afford to waste." That was that. Her energy enveloped us and she picked us all up, carried us on an invisible wave. I didn't like flying under someone else's powers. We weren't sky high by any means, just above the swishing grass. Rachel's telekinetic bubble shielded us from the cold wind that shivered over the seemingly endless field of grass, but I wrapped my arms protectively around Lila's sleeping body anyway. Rachel linked our minds like we had discussed in our mission planning, at least the best she could with Gambit's slippery eel mind, and I was briefly overwhelmed by everyone else's perceptions of the alien world around us before we settled into our rapport.

_"Smells sharp, crisp,"_ Hank bubbly mind mused. _"No pollution or burning fuels in the air."_

_"Oui,"_ Gambit agreed, his natural resistance to telepathy making his mental voice slightly muffled. He stared off in the distance. _"No contrails in the sky, no buildings or similar structures visible on my scanner, neither."_ My mind soaked in the colors, the sights. A flock of neon green and red birds with feathers draping nearly a foot from their wings floated by us. I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that we were here. No matter how many times I had been off-world and no matter the circumstances, it was always a miracle to me, to see things that my Daddy could have only dreamed of. I wished Lila was awake to see where her powers had stretched to bring us. Where were our friends? It was bitterly cold and my mind dug deep, producing a picture of that little dress Anna had been wearing the night of the attack.

"Stop it," Gambit hissed out loud, his red on black eyes furious.

_"You're not helping, Sam,"_ Rachel's voice echoed guiltily in my mind. I shut up and let the landscape roll beneath me. We floated on the invisible telekinetic carpet for hours, following the flaming sun's sinking path. Rachel had made the right call. The distance we traveled would have taken us days, if not weeks, on foot.

Gambit's scanner, now strapped to his wrist, had pointed us towards water, a small creek that looked to wind its way further on through the grass. We made camp underneath the strangely twisted trees; Gambit started a fire with a flash of his kinetic ability while Hank and I set up our tent. We had sure packed light. Instead of each of us bringing a tent, we had brought one, and it was more like a lean-to than a real tent, no poles or zippers, but it was large enough for all of us to rest under with sides that folded down. All that mattered to me was that it was waterproof and would keep out the wind.

Lila was finally awake, and sat next to the fire, picking morosely at her ration pack. I excused myself from Hank and walked towards her, grabbing my own supper. "What did you get?" I asked, folding my long legs under me as I sat next to her.

"It says chicken enchilada, but I'm pretty sure it's lying." I laughed and she glared at me, exhaustion still tugging at the corners of her big brown eyes. It must have been a rude awakening for her, to come to and realize we still had no goddamned idea where our friends were. Sure, having to hunt for them had always been a possibility, but I think we all secretly hoped Anna and Logan would be right where Lila's portal had left them, stupid as that sounded.

"Want to trade?" I tested, offering her my drab green pouch. She eyed it suspiciously.

"What is it?" I tipped the stamped black type towards the light.

"Chipped beef." She pulled her chicken enchilada protectively towards her.

"Um, no." I tore into mine, hoping it tasted better than the smell that wafted out of the bag. It didn't. "Where are Remy and Rachel?" she asked in between grudging bites. Hank could still be heard puttering in the shelter behind us, probably rustling through his medical pack from the sound of it.

"Gambit hopped to the other side of the crick, scanning as far as that little unit will go. He said he wanted to plot possible routes for tomorrow. Rachel's doing the same thing, sort of. She's using her powers to do a deep scan for Anna and Logan's mental signatures." Gambit was also keeping an eye on Rachel. She had demanded to be alone while she meditated and cast out the net of her telepathic powers, but none of us were too keen on leaving her on her lonesome in this weird ass place. We had wordlessly agreed to take shifts watching her 'til she was done. Lila nodded and chewed slowly. The crisp grass crinkled behind her like someone balled up a piece of paper.

"Hope her range is a lot further than this damned scanner." Lila gasped when Gambit practically melted from the shadows and sat beside us.

"Jesus! Don't do that!" She slapped his arm, and he grinned, his devil eyes glinting mischievously in the firelight.

"Get anything useful?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Grass goes on for a long, long time without much of a break. It looks like trees start to spring up and eventually lead to a forested area, but still no buildings or man-made structures." He grimaced, "Sorry, no alien-made structures." Hank joined us by the fire.

"Curious and curiouser…" The Beast muttered under his breath.

"What's that, Beastie-Boy?" Gambit teased the Doc. "Wondering how they get away with calling those rations food?"

"No, my Cajun friend, I am quite confident that the contents of said pouches have nothing whatsoever to do with edible cuisine. My query was in reference to our current surroundings. Mind you, we have been planet side for merely a handful of hours, and have hardly viewed a slice of the possible landscape, but in all the galaxies nothing is more scarce or rare than inhabitable worlds. There simply has to be some form of higher being here, the physical possibilities this form could take surely endless, but Anna and Logan could not have remained here for nearly nine months without running afoul of something beyond the birds and the bees."

"You think they went looking for these higher beings?" Remy probed, his glittering eyes suddenly dark.

"What would you have done?" Hank returned, but nobody was willing to answer. I stood and stretched, tossed Hank my uneaten ration pack.

"I better go check on Rachel," I headed towards her perch on a small rocky outcropping slightly downstream. I knew she wanted to be alone, she had practically shoved us away mentally and physically, but too damned bad. Girl was tough, and I knew she could take care of herself. Gambit had taken his turn keeping his sly eyes on her, now it was my turn. The grass had frosted over and crunched under my boots. I stopped and looked above me, took in the sea of stars that erupted over my head the further I moved from the fire. Rachel was just in sight, levitating herself a few feet off the surface of the rocks. I stayed silent, but it wasn't like she didn't know I was there. I stared up at the sky, stupidly wondering if, right now, Anna was staring at the same stars. Rachel gasped suddenly and fell flat on her butt, her concentration clearly shattered. I scrambled to help her up.

"You okay, girl?" I patted my hands on her arms and back, looked her up and down for any signs of injuries. Her eyes were distant, unfocused, a slight smile playing on her lips.

"Yeah. Better than okay." Her eyes cleared and held mine. Her smile widened. "I found them, Sam. I freaking found them!" I stared at her mutely, stunned. She dug her fingers painfully into my arms. "They're alive! But, they won't be if we don't get to them, fast!"

**Logan**

_"Wake up!"_

I sputtered and puked a gut full of muddy river water, flopping uselessly onto my stomach on the cold bank. Stupid! Stupid! You just had to go after them! Should have taken Anna away from here, kept her safe. Protected her. Icy fear gripped my insides, rocking me with spasms of pain. Anna! Where was she!? My mind raced through my last minutes of consciousness, saw her crumpled form fall to the ground before that briny-bastard blasted me. I pushed up on my arms and fell back down in the muck. The matching holes in my back and chest burned with healing flesh, and my clothes were in tatters. I didn't have time for goddamned weakness. She was in trouble, she could be hurt, or…

_"She's not dead, Logan."_ I blinked. Must have been hallucinating, hearing voices. I tried stubbornly to push myself up again, but my quivering arms failed. I just rolled over on my back, the sun blinding me. I blinked again, suddenly stunned by the sight of a red-headed woman standing over me. She held out her hand, the sunlight streaming through her transparent form.

"Jeannie?" I whispered. "Is this it, darlin'? Have you come to take me home?" The woman laughed, and the laugh was familiar, but it wasn't Jean's.

_"Silly man. We're here to take you home, just not like you're thinking."_

"Rachel?"

_ "In mind, if not yet body. Hold tight, Logan. The X-Men are on their way."_ She smiled and evaporated, leaving an emptiness behind in her wake. I managed to haul myself up to sit on a big rock, but I didn't believe I hadn't dreamed it until hours later when Sam Guthrie cannon-balled into view, dragging the Beast behind him. When we got home, everybody was gettin' a damn lesson on the subtle and sneaky approach. Home. A laugh bubbled in my throat. Anna, darlin', you had your rescue, shame you weren't here right now to see it. Guthrie and Hank landed at my side.

"Oh, sweet Jesus! Logan!" The kid swallowed me in his gangly arms and started sniffling on my shoulder. I patted his back and let him, smiling at Hank over the hayseed's head.

"Bout flamin' time," I grumbled. Hank flashed his teeth at me in a huge grin.

"You know the X-Men. We thrive on dramatic impact." He pulled a scanner from a bag slung over his huge furry shoulder. "You look atrocious, my friend." I snorted.

"I bet." I slapped Guthrie's back again and squeezed his shoulder. "All right, all right, that's enough, kid." He scrubbed his face and pulled back, leaving what was left of my shirt soaked in tears. "Thanks," I said sarcastically.

"Logan," His face twisted in remorse. "I'm so sorry…" I held up my hands.

"Hey, we're good. Never blamed you or your girl. Wasn't your fault." I thought he was gonna start bawling again, but thankfully Rachel and the rest of my rescue squad floated into view. Sam, Lila, Rachel, Hank, and Gumbo. Part of me winced at Ororo's absence, though Gambit was something that would have to be dealt with. The fact that I owed him a punch to the gut caused my fist to momentarily clench at my side when I saw his red on black eyes searching for her. I choked it down. He was here because of his feelings for Anna, and she needed to be our concern. Red's smile was as welcome as the sunshine, just like her mom's.

"Wolvie!" I squeezed her close. We had our differences over the years, but I would always be grateful that a part of Jean Grey, alternate version or otherwise, still lived on.

"Hey, pun'kin." I kissed the top of her head, taking comfort in the smell of her hair. Friends, family. My mind still couldn't believe it; I still had to be flamin' dreamin'. Gambit's eyes bored into mine, the stink of angry panic rippling out from his usually cool as a cucumber demeanor.

"What happened, mon ami? Where is she?" His tone was accusatory, like I hadn't taken care of her, like it had been my fault. I growled, the anger torrid in my throat.

_"Logan!"_ Rachel's mind held me fast for a heartbeat. "We know where she is, Remy," she said aloud tartly. "We just need to go after her." Lila Cheney smiled sheepishly and waved at me before she ducked under Guthrie's waiting arm.

"A sound assessment of the current situation, young Grey." Beast packed away his pointless medical scanner. I was fine, healing up like always. "A plan would appear to be of the utmost necessity?"

"What happened?" Guthrie repeated Gumbo's question. I opened my mouth to speak, but Rachel telepathically jumped in.

_"Why don't I mind link us? You could let us see what happened instead of telling us. We've been linking periodically since we came here. It's certainly faster, and there's less chance you'll forget some important detail." _ I snarled.

"No."

"Logan, we have found it extremely useful on this venture. It would expedite things immensely…" Hank stuck his two cents in, but I wasn't having it. What had happened here between me and Anna was nobody's goddamned business.

"So would shutting up and letting me talk," I growled.

_"Logan…"_ Rachel's mind reached for mine again.

"I said no, Red!" I tried to stop it, but my mind replayed the last sweet kiss I shared with Anna before it all went south. Rachel's eyes widened.

_"I…I can route everything through me first, Logan. Just show them the important stuff…"_ She mentally pleaded. _"I can keep it private…"_ Fuck. We were wasting time that Anna might not have.

"Do it," I spat. She spread her fingers along my temples and closed her eyes, but it felt like her fingers kept going, digging her telepathy deep into my brain, pulling out the threads of what she wanted. In my mind's eye, my life since the night of the Purifier's attack flickered past at warp speed. Rachel's eyes fluttered beneath the lids and I saw everybody else wince as the slide show hit their cerebral cortex. It all gushed out of me, ripping open freshly healed wounds I wasn't ready to deal with yet. Anna, were you hurt, darlin'? Rachel gasped in front of me, her face turning the color off her hair at my memories she was reliving. Her scent was a fathomless cocktail of embarrassment, arousal, and confusion.

"Logan…" She breathed out loud, and her powers pulled from my brain like a dull knife blade.

_"Not now,"_ I thought at her as it ended.

"Fascinating!" Beast. "A species based on the phylum Chordata! If the situation were not so dire, the opportunity for further study would be monumental!" I grunted, but watched Gambit's eyes. He started moving slowly along the river bank. I knew Rachel had kept my memories of Anna and me together out of the other's heads, but Gambit was a wild card when it came to mind-readers. He may have gotten more of a show than he had been gunning for.

"All right," I said gruffly and stood, my body finally not shaking with every move. "Enough fucking around. Rachel, you can track Anna?" Her face twisted at the word. I hated to ask it of her, knew what those actions had cost her, but it couldn't be helped.

"Yes." She furrowed her delicate eyebrows, her face more like her father's than her mother's when she dug in and concentrated. "She is alive and conscious." She smiled Jean's smile. "And ticked off. She's trying to work out an escape plan." I smiled.

"That's my girl," I hadn't meant it like that, was just an expression, but the Cajun frowned at me from the river bank. "Can you link us?" Rachel pursed her lips.

"No…I can communicate with her, but it's difficult. I only found her in the first place because she was broadcasting intense emotions. To talk to her, it's not clear. Something is blocking me…another consciousness or a physical barrier." I nodded and clenched my jaw.

"Just tell her we're coming for her…I'm coming for her…"

**Rogue**

_"Desmond had a barrow in the marketplace…"_

_ "Molly is a singer in a band…"_

Been working my way through the _White Album _at the top of my lungs for the last couple of hours. Those briny-bastards haven't even looked my way since right after I woke up, and it was more than a little insulting to be completely ignored. Glass wasn't that thick. I could hear them, all their little gurgles and purrs floating between them, the blips of their equipment. I knew they could hear me.

_"Obla di obla da…" _

Hang tight, Rachel had said.

_"Life goes on, bra! La la how the life goes on!"_

We're coming, she had said. Don't do anything stupid. Well, t'hell if I was gonna wait like Rapunzel in her tower for some knight in shining armor to come and rescue me. Sadly, my attempts to rescue myself had been spectacular failures so far. I had gotten bored pretty fast watching them pilot their little water filled vessel. The one I had k-oed with my powers, I was calling him Ernie, seemed to be the subordinate, the co-pilot. The other one, the one that had kicked our asses but good, he was Bert. Bert was bigger in size and spent a lot of time gesturing towards things for Ernie to do. Best I could tell, a rendezvous was coming sooner than I wanted it to. Ernie seemed to be hauling a lot of suspicious looking crates into the main bridge, and the duo's activity grew more hurried the longer we moved along.

With my jailers otherwise occupied, I worked on testing the limits of my cell. I had first tried rocking the tank loose from its bearings, but the sucker was pretty solid. Slick on the inside, too, hard to gain any purchase. I had taken off my boots and tried to scale the inside, like I said, the dynamic duo were pretty much ignoring me, but it was humid as sin inside the tank, sticky and thick. My hands and feet squelched embarrassingly down the glass surface like a squeegee. My original plan had been to make it to the top of the tank and hack into the air vent, make a hole big enough to get out. Air had to be piping in from somewhere I had reasoned. Unfortunately, several disastrous attempts at scaling the walls had gotten me nowhere, leaving me frizzy and irritated. I had stripped down to just my dress, my boots, leggings, and jacket crumpled together in a pile. The tank was hotter than a Mississippi July.

The next plan was to get ahold of one of them and use my powers. Sadly, for that to work, they would need to actually acknowledge my existence and come close enough for me to touch. To get their attention and to get them to open my tank, I had screamed and pounded until my fists were bloody. I had tried everything I could think of to get their attention. Lord help me, I had even faked a heart attack _Sanford and Son_ style, but these assholes had just kept about their business like they hadn't even seen me. But, I knew they were watching me, that they could hear me. When Rachel had found me and suddenly popped into my head I had jumped out of my skin and screamed her name. Ernie, the little guy I had traces of in my head, had twitched in surprise and swiveled his big saucer eyes towards me. Old Bert must not have liked that, he had made some pretty loud vocal sounds, and had made what I considered some universally rude gestures in my direction. Didn't need a translator to tell me what he had said. I was sure it was something along the lines of 'ignore her', like I was some misbehaving child.

I decided I sure as hell wasn't going to make it easy on them, hence the inspiration for my little rock concert. I stood and leaned against the glass, closed my eyes and kicked the volume up a couple notches, twisting my voice flatter than a pancake.

_"Happy ever after in the market place…"_

_ Molly lets the children lend a hand…_

_ Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face…_

_ And in the evening she's a singer with the band…_

_ Obla di obla da…_

_ Life goes on, bra! _

_ La la how the life…"_

SMACK!

I jumped back from the glass. Boss-man Bert's webbed hand, the fingers ending in curled claws, had slapped the water side of the glass where my head had been. He bared his teeth, tiny fangs arranged in razor-sharp rows like a shark's back home. Goddamn, they had to have teeth like _Jaws_, didn't they? I ignored the shiver that wanted to crawl up my skin.

He looked livid. Now we were getting somewhere. I leaned one forearm on the glass just above my head, and put the other hand on a cocked hip. "Not a Beatles fan, sugar?" I smiled and bared my own teeth. Incomprehensible noises came out of his mouth in a rush of angry air bubbles. "I take requests…" He slid his claws down the glass, my tank reverberating the nails on a chalkboard screech, my enhanced hearing amplifying it down to my very nerves. I gritted my teeth and growled, my claws itching to tear into him. I hadn't popped them. Yet. I had wanted to keep something a surprise. He smacked the glass again, and I smacked back, my temper beyond control. I braced my backside against the opposite curve of the tank, and kicked as hard as I could right towards his outraged face. I started my song back up in between thudding kicks. Did nothing but hurt my feet, but Bert stopped smacking back. He wasn't human, but if he had been, I would have described his face as murderously cold. He languidly circled my tank, my eyes tracking his every gliding movement. He stopped near my face, and his hand drifted to rest on a control panel just outside the glass. At his touch, the air vent over my head whirred to a sickening stop. Four spigots opened in the ceiling, sending torrents of cold, salty water down onto my head.

"Jesus H. Christ!" Any other time, an ice cold shower on a hot humid day would have been welcome, but the water was rushing in and not rushing out. The tank was already filled to my ankles. I screamed and swore. Bert's lips and teeth split into what had to be a smile, his eyes gleaming sadistically, the threat crystal clear in any language. Fuck. My heart pounded erratically. 'Pears he had decided I was more trouble than I was worth.


	17. Chapter 17

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

**Sam**

"Rachel, you got a lock on her?" Her mind was warm tendrils reaching into mine.

_"Best I can, Sam. Ship must be moving fast, the increasing distance combined with whatever's hindering my telepathy is making it hard to hold onto her."_

"Then we best move." We each knew what we had to do. Me, Rachel, Wolverine, and Gambit were the muscle. Our jobs were to locate the craft holding Rogue and crack it open like a tin of sardines. Hank and Lila would stay hidden in case we needed backup. I had wanted to keep Lila far away from whatever went down, but, much as I hated to admit, it made sense to keep her close. As soon as we had everybody within a few feet of each other, she could teleport us the hell out of this place. Hank would keep a good eye on her.

_"There's more…"_ Rachel's telepathic voice was a shimmering worry, and I wondered if she was pushing herself too hard. She had flown the whole lot of us the equivalent distance of the continental United States in less than two days, but I guess they didn't classify her as an Omega for nothin'. She was a big part of our plan, and we had decided to split our forces on approach. She, Gambit, Hank, and Lila were travelling courtesy of Rachel's telekinesis along the river, hugging the bluffs and using the rocky outcroppings to mask them. Plan was for them to get close, but not too close, then deposit Lila and Hank safely at the top of a nearby bluff. Rachel would pinpoint the craft's location and signal me and Logan, coming from high in the air. The two of us were currently blasting high enough to touch the clouds, a few minutes behind, but in telepathic contact with Rachel's group. Logan had been none too happy about me using my powers, nothing real subtle about them, but I was fast and could inflict a lot of damage just like my namesake and we were flying high enough to not be easily seen by the naked eye. I'd swoop down and drop him right on the ship, figured his healing factor would protect him from a bad dive if he missed his mark even from our altitude. If our groups struck simultaneously, Gambit and Rachel crippling the ship while Logan and I hit it from the air, we would tear them apart.

"What is it?" Logan asked gruffly. He was tenser than I had seen him, and for Wolverine that was saying a lot. If you looked up hair-trigger in the dictionary, you'd see his picture. This wasn't his normal battle ready posture, he was different, almost desperate. Nine months, day in day out with only one person, you probably made damn sure you looked out for that other person. Anna being held by those bastards must have been tearing him up.

_"No, you misunderstood. I mean there's more…more brinys. I can't get ahold of their minds, they're too slippery, but I can sense them. The ship carrying Rogue just ran into a whole lot more of them. A base maybe, or another ship?"_ Logan swore enough for the both of us. We hadn't been fast enough, and now it was sure gonna hit the fan.

"Are we ready?" I asked, Logan too angry to speak or string a coherent thought together. I still had nightmares of the first time I ever saw that man cut loose in a berserker rage, and I felt a moment of pity for Anna's captors. Those briny-bastards didn't know what was coming for them.

_"Hank and Lila are safe, and Gambit's getting into position now. Remy, what can you see?"_ With the pressure of an ice cream headache, an image of the mouth of the river flickered across my mind's eye. Strange sensation, seeing things through someone else's eyes. You still saw what your own eyes were seeing, but the telepathically imposed image presented itself like a daydream.

_"There's a dozen ships, at least what I can see above the water, and what looks like towers built into the rocks at the mouth of the river. We're dealing with the possibility of heavy numbers here."_

"Numbers don't matter." Logan's words sliced across Rachel's link just like his razor sharp claws. "I'm going after her. If you can't handle it, Cajun, go keep Cheney and the Beast company."

_"Don't you worry 'bout me, mon ami. Let's worry 'bout that beautiful Rogue. But, might I suggest a Plan B?"_

"Little late for that, bub."

_"Non. We can't all be aimed at the ship that's holding her. The rest of those vessels, they'll waste us. 'Stead of us all gunning for that yellow submarine, Samuel needs to be a distraction. He drops you, roars through overhead all Cannonball style, draws their attention and fire while you gut the target. Me and Rachel watch your backs while we take out marks ourselves, assist where we can."_

"Sounds good to me, Logan." I said, the mouth of the river shifting into view of my eyes instead of my mind as we approached.

"All right. Show us the ship, Red."

**Logan**

I kept my body straight and rigid on the way down, but the high dive into the icy water was like being slapped by a Mack truck. I surfaced in time to see Guthrie's distraction get underway. He blasted at full steam, tore back and forth across the mouth of the river, zig-zagging through the alien crafts. He kicked up a pretty impressive ruckus. Brinys poured out of the towers that clung like barnacles to the rocky bluffs at the river's exit into the ocean beyond. Blaster bolts started firing from canons the size of school buses, tracking the boy, their shots strafing the sky, but he was fast. His speed lifted rushes of water that shook the boats on each pass. I prayed he'd stay faster than those shots, hoping his invulnerability would protect him if he didn't.

_"There."_ Rachel's mind touch propelled me towards the craft that held Anna, its yellow and orange stripes burned into my memory. _"We had better hurry, something's wrong. Rogue's in trouble." _My guts churned. Couldn't think about her now. Had to focus. We would get to her in enough time, or we wouldn't. I swam as fast as I could. There were a smattering of similar ships, different colors and sizes, bobbing around me. Kinetic-fueled magenta bombs rained down on their hulls. Rachel roared into view, claws of telekinetic energy capsizing any craft she could get ahold of. That salty smell, more than just the ocean, filled my nostrils. Troops dropped into the water, and I could see more snaking up along the bluff. I relayed the thought to Rachel, hoped she would warn Beast and Gambit. I reached my flaming yellow and orange target, and slashed at the hull with my claws. I barely dented the surface. Fuck this planet! I slashed and slashed. My claws were nearly goddamned unbreakable, but I hadn't been able to wreck that damn furry thing that ate my guts or that briny-bastard's staff, and now this? What the fuck? I let the fury take me and hacked wildly at different points along the hull, searching in vain for any weakness.

_"Wait!"_ Rachel flashed beside me. _"Together on three?"_ I nodded and she took hold of my arm. We struck as one, her power cushioning my arm as we drove it straight through the ship's hull. Even a plastic straw could jam through a telephone pole when a tornado was doing the jamming. I felt a pop, like the break of a wet balloon losing its seal. Salty water gushed out around my hand and blasted me away from the boat.

_"Again?" _Rachel smiled and pushed me back with her power. I roared a warning, helpless as a blaster bolt clipped her, feeling her pain in my mind through our link before it went silent. Her shield absorbed the brunt of the hit, but she went skipping backwards into the battle frothy water. Brinys riding on suped up jet skis zoomed around the boats, taking pot shots at anything that moved, one of them wrenched Rachel out of the water by her arm. Girl looked to be knocked out. Fuck! I jumped the next one that sped by me, wrapping my arms around its neck in a head lock. My legs flailed behind us. It kept one hand on the controls and elbowed me in the side. I squeezed and got my legs under me, brought my weight to bear and felt a damp crunch. Its neck broken, it went limp in my arms. I grabbed the controls and shoved its body out from under me and into the water. I sped after Rachel and tried to keep thoughts of Anna out of my head.

**Rogue**

Alarms were going off in the ship. Bert and Ernie swam back and forth frantically, trailing boiling bubbles behind them. The lights flashed when the boat rocked and shook, explosions reverberating along the vessel's outer hull. The X-Men were coming for me you sons of bitches. Logan was coming for me. I looked down at the water tickling the tops of my knees. Here's hoping they weren't too late.

"Rachel!" I screamed with all my mind's might, but got no response. I felt an explosion, like bursting a big old puss filled blister. The glass of my tank cracked and split a jagged smile, the break spider webbing like somebody had slammed it with a sledgehammer. The ship was pressurized, and somebody had ruptured the seal. I braced myself and mule kicked as hard as I could, again and again. Pain laced its way cold up my calf when the glass gave way and sliced my leg something fierce. Salt water charged in after it. I sputtered while the tank kept filling around me. Bert roared and went for his staff, blasted at me in the same motion. Nowhere to hide, I was luckier than I deserved when the ship lurched and his bolt went wide, the heat burning my arm even through the icy water. I took one last breath and kicked out through the hole into the water-filled cabin. Bert fired again, but I rolled in the water and dodged the shot, his claws connecting with my back as I spun. Moving slowly, I kicked for his stomach, caught a piece of him and drove him back. Behind me, Ernie grabbed for my throat. I elbowed him and kicked at Bert's doubled over body, connecting with his head, my shredded leg stitching itself back together as it glided through the water. I was running out of air, choking, but I just smiled. Ernie definitely wasn't smart, he must not have pieced together how I took him out earlier. I pulled on the bare skin of his clawed hands hard enough to make it hurt. His hold slackened, his body floating away in a heavy, sinking slump. Those goddamned gills sprang up on my neck and I gleefully sucked a salty wet breath. Bert punched wildly for me. I caught his fist with my hand, his wide eyes watching the webbing spread between my fingers while I held it tight.

"What…are you?" It wasn't English, but I sure as hell understood it. I held my other hand under his chin and popped two of my bone claws on either side of his face.

"The best there is, sugar." I smiled, but the animal in me screamed to pop the third claw. Instead, I pulled on his consciousness, knocking his ass out, too. Around me the ship was losing pressure and water fast. I snagged one of their breathers, just in case I couldn't revert to human form fast enough once I left the ship, and shoved it down in my bra for safe keeping. I realized I couldn't kill them, no matter what they had planned for me. Just wouldn't be right. I found an escape pod and shoved them in, jettisoned them into the river for safe keeping. Their combined engineering experience scrolled through my mind. The biggest danger to the ship during pressure loss was the possibility of igniting their fuel source, it needed to stay under water or it exploded. A few strokes of the keys at the command console told me all I needed to know. It was too late to stop the cascade, and I frantically swam for my life ahead of an engineering fireball.

"RACHEL!" I screamed inside again. "Fire in the hole!" I jerked open the airlock and threw myself off the side. The explosion shoved my burning ass skyward. The icy water mercifully put out the flames creeping up the hem of my dress, but the force of the fall and explosion pushed me far under the water. I used my borrowed gills and webbed appendages to put a little distance between me and the heat, then surfaced. The current of the river was swift, but, tactical advantage or not, I wanted those briny-bastards out of my head. I pushed their psyches away, able to let them go, though the effort made my heart skip a beat. I felt almost sick at what I saw in the water around me. Sure, the brinys had attacked Logan and I for no real good reason, kidnapped me and nearly killed us both, but my rescue had resulted in absolute carnage. Nearly a dozen boats had capsized or were on fire, flaming wreckage littered the surface of the water, blaster bolts burned towards the rocky bluffs, familiar magenta bombs rained back in response. Remy. I smiled in spite of myself. My former lover, always ready to rescue the damsel in distress.

The waves caused by my explosion threatened to pull me down again, and I swallowed a mouthful of nasty fuel-laced river water. What looked like jet skis crisscrossed the choppy water and headed in my direction. Overhead, a familiar burning light accompanied the roar of an airplane, the noise drowning out every other sound except Sam Guthrie's triumphant

"Whoop!" He grabbed my arm on his pass by and yanked me from the water, enveloping my body in his power's protective field. "Going my way, girl?" I cried out in happiness and coiled my arms and legs tightly around him.

"Oh, Sam Guthrie," I buried my head in his neck and squeezed with all my might. "I could so kiss you right now!" He put an arm around my waist and laughed, barreling us around a blaster bolt aimed at his head. He just laughed.

"I'll take about a five minute rain check!"


	18. Chapter 18

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

**Sam**

I set us down in the trees, away from Hank and Lila. I hadn't wanted to give their position up to the cannon's still chasing us. Anna smiled at me with tears in her eyes. She threw herself into my arms and kissed me enthusiastically on the lips. I felt my cheeks blush something fierce when she pulled away.

"Come on, Anna," I ducked away from her. "There's a lot I want to say to you right now, but it'll have to keep. We gotta get to the rendezvous point." I took hold of her hand and we sprinted from the noise of the river into the cold dark woods. I called out to Rachel with my mind, but got no response. I swallowed hard. I wasn't exactly sure which direction to turn to find Lila and Hank. The flight had gotten me turned around, and I cussed myself out for an amateur. It all looked different from the air, and I had been counting on Rachel to lead me back if we had trouble. I stopped after a few frantic minutes.

"What's wrong, sugar?" Anna was breathing as heavy as I was, sending billowing clouds of icy vapor towards the treetops. I leaned over and put my hands on my knees.

"Rachel. She's not answering." Anna chewed her lip like she did when she was concentrating.

"Haven't been able to raise her for a bit. Was hoping it was just because of that damn ship they had me on."

"She and Logan were going after your ship…" That had apparently been the wrong thing to say right then. She visibly paled.

"Shit!" She hissed and turned back towards the fighting.

"Whoa, girl. Hold on!" I grabbed her elbow and she spun on me, snarling vicious enough to scare me.

"That boat blew sky high, Sam!" Her voice was angry, but her green eyes were full of horror. "We gotta find them, they could be hurt!" I held her arm tightly and finally took a good look at her.

"Jesus, girl, you're in no condition to keep fighting. You're the one who's hurt!" Her dress, the only clothes she was wearing, was little more than scandalous scraps held together by threads. She was thin, thinner than I had ever seen her, corded muscles straining the surface of her painfully exposed skin. Angry red burns and blisters decorated her arms and legs, tattooed her neck and chest. She had ran barefoot with me through the tangled roots and frosty forest floor, and her feet were a bloody torn mess. She jutted her chin out at me defiantly and burst six bone claws from her hands.

"I'll heal." Stunned, my mouth hung open like the hillbilly that people assumed I was. We had been with Logan for the better part of a day. Since when could she hold onto powers that long?

"Those are new, cherie." Gambit appeared out of thin air like he always did. Rogue lowered her claws and turned warily towards Remy. I held my breath, wishing I wasn't standing here right now. Gambit smiled softly. "He get you those for Christmas?" Humor in the face of overwhelming danger had always been the X-Men's stock in trade.

"Don't try and stop me, Remy." Her voice was low, hoarse.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Anna. Just don't think it's needed. They weren't near your boat when it exploded, I could see them from my position on the bluff." He shrugged out of his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Take my jacket, Anna." I heard her retract her claws and Remy helped her into the coat. Keeping hold of her hand, he brought her palm to his lips and kissed it, and she smiled softly. Two seconds was all it took to have her eating right out of his hand. I had to stop myself from kicking him in the balls; no wonder Bobby Drake hated him. Anna shook her head fiercely at him and looked to me.

"We still have to…" She was interrupted by the rip of a scream through the air. Lila's scream.

"Where!?" I seized Gambit's arm, but he shook his head.

"Sounded like…that way," he pointed. Rogue put her nose to the air.

"Lila? And Hank?" I nodded and she took off running full tilt, me and Gambit hot on her heels. Four of them had Hank and Lila pinned. The Beast flipped in the air, kicking out one direction and punching the other as we headed towards them. I took off with my power and slammed into another, sending it rolling down the hill. I circled back.

"There!" Rogue screamed and pointed at another half dozen of them crawling up the side of the bluff. I made a grab for Lila. Gambit unleashed a brace of charged cards and collapsed part of the rocky ledge, sending some of them tumbling back into the water below. More crashed through the trees brandishing quarter staffs outfitted with sharp looking fins.

"Blasters on the end of those things!" Rogue shrieked the warning a heartbeat before they opened fire on us. Beast took one square in the back, sending him careening into Gambit. "Remy!" Rogue dove at the shooter, dodging white hot bolts of energy. Her claws tore into its shoulder and it bellowed in pain, swung its staff in an arc towards her. Lila shifted to my back and wrapped her limbs tight. I prayed she would be safe, and dove into three of our attackers, knocking them sideways. Rogue roared in angry pain, the blades of that bastard's staff ripping into her leg on an upswing, but her claws connected. Her assailant gurgled and sputtered, blood spraying from its side. Lila and I dodged a shot, but still managed to hammer another into the ground. Gambit looked shaky, but was on his feet facing a trio of them, shooting cards from his deck one handed while he held the Beast up with the other. We were getting there, evening the odds, but we were still outnumbered. On the next pass, I grabbed Anna and threw her at her next target. She twisted in the air, dodging blaster shots left and right, connecting feet first with the side of one of their faces. I paused for one heartbeat and shuddered in amazement. She was ferocious and went right on slashing when she hit the ground.

"Sam!" Lila choked into my ear. My bowels seized up at the sight that greeted my eyes. Scores of them poured from the trees and slithered over the ragged bluffs.

"Rachel!" I screamed one more time in my head, losing count of the new targets in the frenzied volley of rounds they unleashed against us.

**Logan**

He outmaneuvered me 'til I found the turbo booster. I hammed the alien throttle to get alongside him, taking the turns and twists at full speed. Wreckage littered the surface of the water as far as my eyes could see. One thing about the X-Men that had held true as long as I had been a part of the team: you could always tell where we had been. I got as close as I could to them and threw myself onto the jet ski. The face the driver pulled, though full of angry sick fear, said I was fucking crazy in any language. I caught him and Rachel in one swoop of my arms and shoved the three of us into the water with the momentum of my weight, the ski kept going. Lost him, but managed to keep ahold of her arm on the way down. I got mine wrapped around her waist, and hauled her up to the churning surface. I had hoped the shock of the icy water would have snapped her awake, but no dice.

"Rachel!" I treaded water and shook her, tapped her clammy cheek with the back of my fingers. "Up and attem, darlin'!" Something yanked on her legs, tried to pull her under. Not real hard to guess who had grabbed for her. I hoped she wouldn't get too much water in her lungs, but it had to be taken care of. Tightening my grip on Rachel, I bobbed up and down, dove just under the surface and skewered the bastard with my claws. We broke the surface, me gasping for air, Rachel still limp in my arms.

Chaos reigned around us. Guthrie still strafed the ships, drawing their fire. Gambit bombed targets, and I saw him moving swiftly along the bluff, playing peek-a-boo in the trees to avoid becoming a bull's eye himself. I spotted Anna's ship a good league away and swam for it, dragging Rachel with me. Before I swam a hundred yards the ship exploded, shooting flames high into that icy turquoise sky.

"NO!" I screamed 'til my guts caved in. "ANNA!" It felt like somebody had punched my heart right out of my chest with a flaming fist. This wasn't fucking happening! I paddled like mad towards the scorching heat of the flames that danced on the water.

"Logan…" Rachel flailed awkwardly under my arm.

"Tell me she's okay, Red!" I screamed in her ear. "Tell me she wasn't on that boat!" She choked on scummy water, the explosions rippling waves into our faces.

"No…I don't think…" Her head lolled against my shoulder, faltered. I pinned her tight and kept paddling desperately. Guthrie barreled overhead and I tried to signal him, but he dipped into the water and rocketed towards the top of the bluffs. God fucking dammit! I realized the heat was gonna be too much for Rachel the closer I got to the flaming remnants of Anna's boat, at least while she was too out of it to use her powers.

"C'mon, Rachel, c'mon. Wake up, darlin'!" A strange little pod the size of a double wide surfboard drifted by us, bobbing in the wake of the waves. I caught it with an arm, steadied it and heaved Rachel out of the water onto its top. I pushed myself up and flopped next to her on my stomach, my legs still dangling in the river. My heart stopped when over the burning and smell of alien fuel and blasters, I caught Anna's scent. I sniffed, inhaled frantically, ran my nose over the surface of the pod. Anna's smell was all over it, but deeper down and stronger was the salty brine of our original assailants. They were in there, had gotten away from the blast. I ran my hands feverishly along the surface, looking for a way inside. Rachel coughed and sputtered next to me. She turned on her side and spewed water across the pod and I grabbed ahold of her, worried she was gonna roll off. I patted her back and squeezed her shoulder. "You all right, darlin'?" She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes.

"Think so…" she whispered painfully. I kept her shielded with my body and looked sickeningly towards the flickering boat. They had gotten away, but had she? I couldn't smell her burning flesh, but all their scents were tangled, confused. Would my powers have protected her if she had been caught in that fireball? Rachel tried to sit up and failed; she held her head in her hands.

"Careful, girl. We're still in the thick of it here." I grabbed her shoulder to push her back down, but she stiffened under my hand.

"Oh!" Her eyes snapped open. "She…she's fine, Logan. Anna's fine! But they're in trouble! We have to get to them!" Her power wrapped around us before I could say boo, and she erratically shot us towards where they had left Hank and Lila on the top of the bluffs. The sound, the smells of battle poured over my senses. Blood, the scorch of blasters, burning, tearing, ripping, screaming. My heart throbbed in my chest, my throat tightening at the sights and scents that enveloped me. Those briny-bastards were everywhere, dozens of them firing their staffs at anything that moved. Gambit and Hank were pinned against the trees. Cannonball, Cheney wrapped around his back, knocked into clusters of them in hit and run moves. In the middle of it Anna, alive and breathing, her bone claws glistening with blood, ripped three of them apart at once. I shook to my core for one second of magnificent relief at the sight of her.

_"Go!"_ Rachel screamed in my mind and threw me full force into the fray with her powers. I let the berserker off the chain, let the bloodlust boil out of me. My claws slashed and hacked, ripped and shredded. They came at me swinging their bladed staffs, kicked and hammered me, but I felt no pain. Adrenaline pumped through with every beat of my heart. I caught Anna's gaze, her green eyes a steady emerald calm in the middle of the red haze. They just kept coming. Their tactics were obvious, they were herding us together despite our efforts to push back and push through their ranks. They were working to surround us and railroad over us. We were drowning, and a nagging fear told me this could be our last stand. I felt a tug, Rachel's powers faintly guiding my body. In my peripheral, I saw Anna, Hank, and Gambit wrenched closer to me and Rachel on an invisible telekinetic wave. She was bunching us together in a tight circle and I opened my mouth to shout at her, to tell her that was what they were trying to do, but I felt her resolve flow into my awareness.

_"Sam!"_ Rachel's mind shouted, and Guthrie flew over the group of us gathered together. Anna grabbed for me desperately the second Guthrie touched down, her fingers scrabbling into the tatters of my flannel shirt. Lila dropped to the ground in the center of our circle. "That's all of us, Lila!" Rachel roared out loud and pushed our assailants back with a telekinetic shield. The force of their blaster bolts hammered the still wobbly redhead to her knees. "Go!"

"Next stop, Korvus and company!" Cheney screamed over the din. The too familiar light of one of her portals flashed around us. I pulled Anna into my chest for a single heartbeat, not caring who saw. Her body was warm and soft pressed against mine for one perfect moment before we all fell into the blackness.


	19. Chapter 19

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

**Rogue**

And just like that, we had our rescue.

Steaming hot water sluiced the accumulated layers of filth and dried blood from my body. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed some more, gingerly gliding over the newly healed bits and pieces of me. Most of the injuries had been superficial, but the reddened skin was still tender and shiny where blaster bolts had sizzled my softer parts. I sighed and rested my forehead against the slippery white tiles of the shower room's wall, stood under the water until I couldn't stand anymore, the heat causing the blood to rush to the tips of my ears. The etched glass stall door slid open easily in a cloud of hot vapor, and I patted myself dry with a thick white towel, inhaling its fresh, clean scent before I wrapped it around me. I took a deep shaky breath to try and calm my surprisingly strangled nerves.

It was a struggle not to feel confined within the walls of the ship. It still didn't feel real. So much time, so much pain, and it was all over in the blink of an eye. I was beyond grateful to our teammates, our family, for coming to our rescue, and to Korvus and my sort of former crew for playing host to us all, but after so much time in the great wide open I was as twitchy as a scared rabbit being penned inside, no matter how homesick I had been. I already missed the sky, the wind, the smells. If it was this bad for me, I could only imagine what it was like for Logan. I sighed louder this time, a dull ache squeezing my heart in my chest like somebody making a fist.

Things had moved so fast from the moment Lila's portal materialized on the deck of the ship's storage bay. Had it only been a couple of hours? Korvus and his crew were few in number, and most of them had been asleep when we landed or were otherwise occupied. I guessed we arrived on their nighttime hours, but Korvus, always a warrior, greeted us in a comforting crush of salutations and congratulations. One second I was cocooned against Logan's chest, the next he dropped me like I had scorched him, and I found myself passed excitedly from alien to X-Man, and back again, but pulled further and further from him. Logan had let me go, just like that, like the time we had spent together hadn't mattered a lick to him. I fought the urge to break my fist against the gleaming white tiles. He had let me go, then he had walked out of that storage bay without me, without even a backwards glance, and I hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since. I had been too overwhelmed in the wash of noise and lights and vaguely antiseptic smells that were the collected stimuli of the vessel to chase after him when a limping Hank had grabbed my arm and forcibly shuffled me out the door and down the hall to the ship's sick bay.

"I'm fine, Beast, other folks are injured, too." At the time, I had objected rather loudly, but his grim face told me he wasn't taking no for an answer.

"I'll get to them next. Humor an old man, Rogue," he said, his smile pained. He had taken quite a big blaster hit himself and was plainly hurting. He motioned for me to sit on one of the room's examination tables and, wincing, pulled a crash cart towards us. I shrugged out of Remy's jacket and hopped up on its chilly surface. Hank pulled a futuristic looking syringe from a drawer.

"Oh, no," I said, scooting down the table as he filled the phial with a clear liquid. "Told you, I'm fine. You can keep that needle to yourself."

"Excellent idea." I jumped when he jabbed the needle into his own arm and pushed down the plunger. His sigh rumbled deep in his throat and he rolled his eyes back in his head. Painkiller. He had been hurt worse than I thought. I opened my mouth to protest again when Sam burst into the room, carrying an unconscious Lila. I caught the scent of musk and spice mixed real heavy with worry, saw Remy's agile form filling the doorway, Korvus behind them all supporting a visibly shaken and bloody Rachel.

"How are you feeling, girl?" Sam asked me and made to lie Lila on the other table. Hank stopped him, oddly unconcerned about her current comatose state or about our obviously injured telepath.

"Samuel, Remy, Captain, can you please take Lila and Rachel into the next room?" Hank's voice was steady, but I could tell the effort to remain that way was wearing on him already. "I will get to them momentarily, I would just like a moment alone with Rogue." I swallowed hard, and my fingers flexed nervously against the slick surface of the examination table. Remy's concerned eyes zeroed in on mine, but it was all I could do to stop myself from screaming. Where was Logan? I was drowning. Hank's worried gaze swept over me, and his furry paw found my shoulder. "I realize we are all a little worse for the wear, but I really must insist on privacy to conduct my examination. Captain, I trust your field experience is more than adequate to administer to Rachel for a few minutes without me." Korvus didn't look too happy getting ordered around on his own ship, but tightened his grip around Rachel's waist and dipped his head curtly.

"Very well, Doctor McCoy. A few minutes you shall have." Each word was like spitting razor blades, but he went with the program.

"Seems like you're the one who's the worst for wear, mon ami." Remy was talking to Hank, but his ruby eyes burned a trail down the length of my body, like he was searching for answers to a question he hadn't yet formed. Hank stepped between us.

"Please do not make me ask again," he growled. Remy's jaw tensed, but he nodded silently and helped Korvus take Rachel back into the hallway. Sam looked like he wanted to disagree, but instead he shifted Lila in his arms so he could kiss the top of my head on his way by.

"All right, I'll take Lila next door, and you can check on her after you examine Rogue and Rachel. Then, it'll be your turn on the table, Doc, no complaining." He smiled broadly. "Good to have you back, girl."

I let out a shaky breath I hadn't realized I was holding when it was just Hank and me.

"Thanks, sugar." I smiled ruefully up at him while he began his examination. "It's so good to see them, but this is all a bit…much right now." He laughed a short bark of a laugh that didn't reach his eyes. I bit my lip as he pulled out a fresh needle.

"I'm afraid this particular needle is for you, Rogue," he said and swabbed my arm with an alcohol pad. "I need a sample of your blood for a variety of tests." I didn't even feel the poke but watched the ampoule fill with crimson.

"Is Lila okay?" I asked. Hank pulled the needle from my arm and replaced it with a rather old school looking blood pressure cuff.

"Yes. Merely exhausted." He entered information onto the touchscreen of a tablet. "I am certain we have numerous stories to share, copious notes to compare concerning the last nine months…" The number socked me like a fist to the gut.

"Nine months?" I whispered weakly. The room spun awkwardly in front of my eyes.

"You were unable to track the number of days?"

"At first I counted, but it was so hard…there were more than a few times we lost days…" I leaned over and buried my head in my hands to steady my breath. How far had we come? I read a blog once where a man had walked across the U.S. in six months. Had we spanned an entire continent? Hank's paw was warm on my shoulder again.

"How long have you been sharing Logan's powers?" I froze.

"The claws were a dead giveaway, huh?" I mumbled weakly.

"Rather difficult to ignore your skin currently sealing itself." I raised my head and he gestured to the long jagged slash, courtesy of one of those bladed staffs, slowly disappearing from the length of my calf. "Would that we all were so fortunate." I laid a hand on Hank's fuzzy arm.

"Are you okay? You got nailed pretty hard…" Those blasters at full strength had knocked me and Logan half a football field across the forest floor, and Hank had taken one center stage. He rubbed his chest and exhaled slowly.

"It hurts, but nothing is cracked, broken or bleeding. Judging from the damage the blast inflicted on my countenance, one could surmise it was, fortunately for me, not fired at full strength. Despite this divine providence, it most certainly feels like I will be not only blue tomorrow, but dappled purple with contusions." He gestured for me to scoot over and wearily sat next to me, his bulking weight tipping the table his direction. "You blatantly ignored my original question," he pointed out, leaning his massive frame against my side. I sighed loudly.

"Yeah, I know." He raised an eyebrow expectantly, and I sent a breath hissing out through my teeth. "Pretty much since we landed. Three, four times a day. Sometimes more. He saved me, Hank. I never would have survived. It made the days a little easier on the both of us." Hank whistled long and low.

"Rogue…Anna…I can't even begin to postulate what the long-term repercussions of your actions may be. We know from past…incidents… that prolonged physical contact can cause a permanent transfer of powers, but we have never studied the effects of repeated, regular exposures…" My face turned red, angry, but I worked to remain calm.

"We didn't have a choice. And it's not like I haven't borrowed Logan's powers before, repeatedly. He's probably the one of us I've absorbed the most. Besides that, I don't think it's permanent," I said hoarsely. "It can't be. There was a stretch where he was injured, bad, and I couldn't bring myself to use my powers on him. It was days, and his powers…went away. I got hurt. This isn't permanent." Hank put his paw on my knee.

"I am not accusing you of anything, Anna. There is no need to become defensive. I understand there were extenuating circumstances, but I am merely exploring the possibilities. Concerning the incident you are describing, are you certain his powers were completely gone?" I opened my mouth, but popped it right back shut and furrowed my brow. The last few days had gone by in such a blur that I hadn't had time to process the chain of events. That creature had chewed his guts out, and I had been a wreck, but I swore they were gone, that I had been imagining the feel of bone claws waiting in my forearms, but I had survived a fall into the river, a hundred feet straight down into icy water with a head injury to boot. It may not have been just dumb luck. Hank loped a burly arm around my shoulder and squeezed.

"I've taken enough preliminary data for one night. We will return to Earth tomorrow when Lila is rested, and, when we are back at the school, we can attempt further analysis and study." I felt oddly numb as the thought took root in my brain. Permanent? "At any rate," Hank continued, and stood gingerly, grimacing and stretching his big furry chest. "Given that you have already healed your own injuries, I find no further reason for you to remain in sick bay. I can doubtless keep the rest of them occupied for a few hours if you need to take some time for yourself and get cleaned up." I crinkled my nose.

"Sorry, Hank. I know I'm a hot mess." Nine months. Nine freaking months of bathing in river water using soap that was barely worthy of the name, brushing our teeth by chewing on tree branches and minty tasting plants, wearing the same nasty, destroyed clothes…Hank laid his palm on my cheek, a sweet, gallant gesture made comical by the sheer size of his paw.

"You're beautiful, Anna." To my surprise, he blinked back tears. "As I said, when you are more rested, we will exchange our stories of the last nine months. It should prove very illuminating. But, for now, I for one am extremely comforted to have the two of you nestled back in the X-Men's metaphorical embrace." I jumped up and hugged him, careful to avoid clutching him too hard.

"Thank you." I simply said, at a loss for anything more eloquent.

"Go." He pointed towards the door. "I'll run interference. The bathing facilities on board really are top notch, though I have a sneaking suspicion Korvus and his ragtag band of former lawbreakers are perhaps a bit more into 'hot-tubbing' than I cared to know." I giggled and stepped towards the door. Hank called after me. "Please send your hairy partner my way if you see him, won't you?" I stiffened, but nodded my goodbye.

Now finished with the greatest shower of my life, well, maybe the second greatest shower, I swiped the condensation from the mirror and took a hard look at my reflection for the first time in a long time. I was pleasantly surprised to not find an absolute ghoul staring back at me. Hank hadn't just been trying to spare my feelings, I looked pretty damn good. I knew it was vanity, but I had been a little scared at what so long living rough like we had would do to me. I knew I was skinnier, my ribs and hips stood out sharper than normal, and my body was more heavily muscled than I usually liked, but I really couldn't complain. Logan and his powers had truly saved me. And now, just like I had feared, I had lost him. Our rescue had snapped him back to reality and away from me, even after everything we had just been through. Despair rolled over me so thick it crushed my chest and throat. I sank to that smooth floor and crumpled into a ball, sobbing uncontrollably.

The arms that wrapped their warmth around me, though familiar, weren't the ones I had been hoping for.

"Anna," Remy's husky voice was a breath in my ear, sending confused shivers down my spine. "Everything's gon' be fine, chere. You're safe now."

"Don't…" I struggled against him, but his strong arms held me close on that steamy tiled floor. I was too exhausted, physically and emotionally, to fight him, so I gave in and collapsed against his bare chest. He stroked his long, beautiful fingers through the tangled wet curls on my head and whispered to me in French. Some of it I caught, some of it I didn't, but I let his safe and comforting presence soothe me. I stopped shaking after a fashion. He pulled back and cupped my face in his hands.

"I keep praying this isn't a dream," he murmured, the corner of his mouth tugging up in that melt your butter smile of his, his thumb lightly tracing the outline of my lips. I let myself drown in those ruby globes he called his eyes, but I found something else hidden in their depths, a heartbeat of hesitation that surprised me. It disappeared quick as it came, and those red on black orbs burned like hot coals in a furnace of desire. Before I could stop him, he bent his head to mine and kissed me. He was a good kisser, and his attentions took the blood from my body and liquefied my insides, stirring up a colossal conflict within me. My muddled brain screamed at my body to stop, but my skin reminded me, rather heatedly, that I had never gotten enough of his kisses in the time he was mine. I knew to my soul that letting him go in the first place was truly my fault, and our relationship ending the way it did, not seeing how I had hurt him, was something I would have to live with, but deep inside the tangled mess I had become my heart shrieked that I no longer had any right to hold on to him when I loved someone else.

Despite my inner conflict or maybe because of it, I answered his lips. Like I said, it was hard not to, he was a really good kisser. Kissing Remy had always been an all-consuming sensual experience. He was gorgeous, angular features, full lips, tall and lithe, his body possessed the graceful musculature of a dancer with the power and passion to match. He didn't so much move as glide, his touch fulfilling every unspoken promise evident beneath those bewitching eyes of his. With one hand, the man caressed every single nerve of your body, enveloping you in a warm bath of melted lust. When you were with him, he made you feel like the sun rose and set around your orgasm, like you were the only woman who mattered, the only woman who had ever mattered. We both got a little hot under the collar, but there was something off, and not just with me. His lips on mine were hitting all the right notes, but it felt like he was just going through the motions, playing the part he was supposed to play. Was I foisting my own emotions onto him in order to relieve myself of the remorse that was beginning to press down on my chest? I pulled my lips away from him, and his face was a conflicted mix of fear and guilt.

"Remy, what is it? What's wrong?" I caressed his cheek, rough with the stubble that had haunted my dreams, hoping my hand wasn't trembling. What was I doing? What did I want from him? Did I want us to keep going? My heart and mind and body still didn't know which way was the right way to turn. What I needed to do was push Remy away, to find Logan and tell him that I loved him right then and there, throw myself to my knees and beg his forgiveness. But Logan had let me go, had walked away, and these last few days he had never promised me anything. Part of me wondered if I should beg for Remy's forgiveness as well, for all the wrong turns we had taken. Anguish washed over his handsome face and he opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it right shut. He looked away and clenched his jaw. "Remy…" His eyes swung back to mine, his expression suddenly determined.

"Say the word, Anna," His fingers dug painfully into my shoulders. "Say the word, and we start all over again. We can make it work, I know we can." His words were firm, like he had come to a decision on this, on us. He was just waiting for me. Like always in our relationship, he wanted me to take the lead, to tell him which way to go. My heart ached at the damage our love had inflicted on each of us, and it hit me that we would only keep repeating the same pattern if I allowed it to continue. We were so broken, and I didn't know how to fix us. We had loved each other, but he deserved better than this, better than us, and he would never find it if I kept tugging him back with promises of a future I wasn't prepared to give him. He was pouring his heart out to me, and I was truly, desperately in love with another man. I couldn't keep us spinning on this sick merry-go-round anymore. One of us had to end this, or we would just keep hurting each other.

"Remy," I breathed out slowly and steadied myself in his arms, determined to have it out. "Logan and I…all this time stranded on that planet, we were…" He looked at me expectantly, his hands running softly up and down my arms. "Our life was so hard every day…living like that, it changed me. Logan and I…Remy, we…" Oh, god. My voice caught in my throat. I started shaking, feeling very much like I was poised to shove a dagger right into his heart. He would hate me forever, but, resolute, I pushed down on the hilt of the spoken blade. "Remy, I love Logan. I _love_ him." It was the first time I had said it out loud. Remy's fingers stilled on my arms and I looked at the ceiling, the walls, anywhere but at his eyes.

"You love him?" he whispered. "What do you mean, you _love_ him?" I heard the sound of his heart jack-hammering in his chest.

"I'm so sorry, Remy. I never meant to hurt you…we never meant it to happen. I thought at first that we were just lonely. It was just the two of us against this alien world... Every day was so difficult and terrifying, we had no one else to turn to, to rely on. We were so desperate, and I thought at first that was all it was…desperation, isolation…but, it wasn't..."

"You…you're serious? You and Logan…do you mean you…" I swallowed thickly.

"I understand if you hate me." I finally looked at him, prepping myself for a huge helping of his rage and revulsion. I had certainly earned it. The look on his face was more shocked than angry as the puzzle pieces fell into place for him. Improbably, a smile played at the corners of his mouth. "Remy, I'm so sorry…" He swallowed my apology with his mouth against mine; I pushed back hard against his chest. "Remy!" He moved from my mouth, raining kisses on my cheeks, my forehead, then worked his way down and nuzzled into my neck. He wrapped his arms around me in an affectionate embrace. It wasn't the reaction I had anticipated.

"Oh, you silly, beautiful woman…" He mumbled silkily against my throat. "Don't you know by now that I could never hate you?" He sighed and released me from his arms. His expression was…relieved. An irrational emotion bubbled to the surface of my jumbled head. What was I missing here? I had just told the man who claimed to be the love of my life that I loved someone else, and he almost looked...happy. Maybe it was my turn to get angry. I raised an eyebrow warningly and crossed my arms.

"Spill it, Cajun." He held up his hands defensively and had the good sense to look slightly abashed.

"While you been gone…me and Ororo…" I didn't follow him until he waggled his eyebrows suggestively. I gasped.

"Shut the front door!" I slapped at his chest and he ducked his head, grinning. Oh, Jesus H. Christ. Even light years away we found new ways to wound each other. It was so ridiculous, I just had to laugh. "How did that happen? Is it serious? Are _you_ serious?" He smiled broadly.

"Happened just like you said, only put our names in place of yours." His beautiful eyes turned wistful and he stroked my cheek with his hand. "I do love you, Anna Marie Raven, with all my heart. You know that, don't you? I never meant for things to happen this way, either…" I turned my face and kissed his palm.

"I know. I love you, too, Remy. I just can't keep doing what we're doing anymore. I hurts too much. Love shouldn't be this hard." He bowed his head and nodded, kissed the top of my head.

"I still want you in my life, chere. Even if it's just as friends, I don't want to live my life without bein' a part of yours. These last months have been hell without you. Lot quieter, though…" I rolled my eyes and tried to untangle myself from his arms, but he snaked them around my back and pulled me into another embrace. I let him, and exhaled a shaky breath into his smooth chest.

"I don't want to lose you, either." We were quiet in each other's arms for a moment. "Can we do this?" I asked finally. "Can we just be happy for each other?" He sighed into my hair.

"We can try."

"Ex_cuse_ me…" Rachel's vocal intrusion was hardly a welcome one. I raised my head and Remy dropped his arms from around me. She stood in the doorway, a sour look on her usually pretty face. "I came to check on you, Rogue," she said flatly, lookin' tired and peeved. "Did you have a nice shower?" Her tone was real impolite for someone barging in unannounced, and that kind of rudeness got the south in me mighty riled up, but when I opened my mouth to tell her so, Remy touched my arm gently. He shook his head imperceptibly. I scowled and kept my mouth shut. "I didn't mean to interrupt, but there's food ready, upstairs, if you want it." She leveled a death glare at Remy, then turned and stomped out of the room.

"That was rude. Figured she'd loosen up a little once she got some alone time with Korvus. Why'd you stop me from telling her off?" Remy elegantly stood and helped me to my feet.

"Ororo and I aren't a secret back home," he grimaced. Oh.

"Get a little flack for that?" I knew the answer and was real sorry for it, especially considering me and Logan had been doing the same thing on a planet far, far away.

"Yeah. Especially from that one and from your pal, Bobby Drake."

"Bobby?" I snorted. "He's never liked you, sugar. He's just always on the lookout for new ammunition." Remy shrugged.

"I was a dirty, stinking cheater."

"Cheater? Last time I checked, we weren't together. We hadn't been for months. You don't owe me anything."

"I don't know about that, cherie, seems like I've got a list somewhere…" he smiled seductively and winked. "Your friends, they were just defending your honor. Rachel took it real personally. It was all we could do to be civil for this little rescue mission. Then, mission accomplished, she walks in on this cozy little tete'a'tete…us tangled on the floor, you in that scandalously tiny towel you got barely wrapped around your naked, heaving bosom…" His eyes took their time looking me up and down. Same old Remy, always landing on his feet. "To her, it probably looked like I was having my wicked way wit' you…" His finger traced across the top of my towel, raising goose bumps on every square inch of me. We were gonna have to work on this friend thing.

"I'll set her square, sugar." He kissed my forehead.

"So…you and Logan, huh?" I smiled nervously. "That joker love you back?" My stomach did a back-flip.

"I don't know, Remy."

**Logan**

"I had wondered where you were hiding yourself."

I took a long pull on whatever bottle the crew had stashed in the kitchen's liquor cabinet. It burned a fire from top to bottom and settled itself angrily in the pit of my stomach.

"Not hiding, Hank," I glared over my shoulder. "Just giving everybody their space." I grabbed the crystal glass I had gotten out but hadn't bothered using, and poured Hank a round of the amber liquid as he painfully hauled his burly form onto the chair perched across from me. I slid the drink across the smooth metallic counter. "You're limping." He wrapped his paw around the glass and sniffed at its contents.

"Yes. I find it rather ironic that I have been on the receiving end of my healing ministrations on this little escapade." He swallowed the shot and choked, sputtering uncontrollably. "Smooth," he croaked. I chuckled bitterly.

"It gets the job done," I said and raised the bottle. "Cheers." I gulped half the contents in three flaming swallows.

"I didn't think that it did." I raised my eyebrows behind the bottle. "'Get the job done', you said. I didn't think that it did. You aren't able to drink enough to actually become intoxicated, are you?" I slammed the bottle down and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

"Not even when I want to." My sigh turned into a snarl. "But, I'm working on it." I offered to pour him another, but he shook his shaggy head and covered the mouth of the glass.

"Thank you, but no. Mixing painkillers and libations can truly be a dangerous notion, and I have more charting and testing to do while things remain fresh in my mind. On that train of thought, you were supposed to come to sick-bay for an examination. Didn't Rogue find you?" My hand flexed on the bottle, nearly shattering it in my hand.

Anna. Not enough booze on this ship to dull that ache in my chest. I had let her go. We had materialized on the deck of the ship's storage bay...one second I had been holding her against me, the next I had dropped her from my arms and stepped back. Why the hell had I done that? The last few months, we had grabbed ahold of each other so fiercely, so desperately…I didn't want her to feel obligated to me. I wanted her, so bad it was tearing me up inside, but I needed her to be sure, to have no regrets. Dammit, I had let go of her. Why had I let go of her? I had been holding her tight in that bright light, and his smell had been all over her...Was that what she wanted? It was all I could do to not beat the hell out of him right there, to take what I wanted, but what if she hadn't been mine in the first place?

I had needed to get away, not just from her and him, but from everybody and everything onboard, before I snapped. The animal in me couldn't jump right from the heat of battle to the clinical cold silence of the spaceship. Adrenaline had still been jacking its way through my veins, my senses frying and sizzling my brain in overloaded sensations. After so many months under endless stretches of sky, alien or otherwise, I shattered inside. I hadn't had that feeling, that wild desperation, for a long time. Hank had been right; I ran and hid like a bitch. I hadn't been on this ship before, didn't really know the crew, but even in my state managed to find a vacant set of quarters where I got myself under some semblance of control and showered up while I healed. Despite everything, it was nice to be cleaned up. I almost felt human. Almost. The rescue squad had brought a uniform for each of us to wear home, but spandex up the crack of my ass hadn't sounded that appealing, so after my shower I had scrounged and found a pair of linen drawstring pants. Logan the man, not Wolverine the animal, had greeted me in that shower room mirror. A man. Not some animal that spit and snarled and took what he wanted no matter who got hurt.

I didn't want this to be over, but if all I had been to her was a warm body in the dark… If she still wanted her happy ending with LeBeau, I wouldn't stand in her way.

"We need to talk about Rogue." I started in surprise, Hank's voice cracking me back to the here and now. I took another swallow. "Or, more appropriately, what you did with Rogue." It was my turn to choke, and the booze that shot through my sinus cavity burned the hair out of my nose. "Are you all right, my friend?" Alarmed, he grabbed hold of my arm.

"Yeah." I shook my head to clear my suddenly blurry vision. "Wrong pipe." Hank gave me a chastising look and wrenched the bottle from my grip.

"The two of you made a very irresponsible choice, Logan. One that will have far reaching, as yet undefined, consequences." What? How the hell did he know about us? Had Rachel opened her big mouth, or had Anna talked about it? Hell, did everybody know?

"It's none of your flamin' business, bub," I crossed my arms defiantly. Hank settled his glasses on his nose, his stance mirroring my own.

"It most certainly is my business. Your actions affect the entire team. I understand the need that had arisen. In the heat of the moment, it would be very easy to give in to temptation. But, really, Logan, three and four times a day? Even you had to have considered the possible danger inherent in this kind of reckless experimentation." My jaw dropped open, dumbfounded.

"Reckless experimentation?" I managed to croak out. Had I hurt her somehow? My mind raced.

"Yes, Logan," Hank slapped his hands on the table, exasperated. "As I said to Rogue, I have no idea what the repercussions of her repeated power absorptions will be on either one of you…" I inhaled sharply and leaned back in my chair, scrubbing my hands roughly down my face.

"Her powers…" I said raggedly, trying to swallow my heart back into my chest.

"Yes! You two took it upon yourselves to use her abilities in ways we've never even imagined. We have both seen firsthand the consequences of her powers unchecked. Your healing and senses may have been negatively impacted, and Rogue may have gained your powers permanently!" I laughed.

"Doesn't seem like a bad thing to me," I quipped.

"Are you certain? My friend, do you view the longevity granted by your abilities as a blessing, or a curse?" I glared at him, but chewed on the thought.

"Both." It was a simple answer, but the truth. My healing powers had given me an unnaturally long-life that, barring some tragic injury, was nowhere near over. I had survived things I had no right to survive, the process generally involving more pain than my life was worth. I had outlived lifetimes' worth of friends, family and lovers, and now he was sayin' I had possibly gifted that to Anna. But, if it was permanent, I had also saved her, would save her, from innumerable injuries. She may hate me in the end, but she would carry part of me with her until that end. Hank kept up with the steady stream of his lecture.

"I understand your need for space in our current enclosed quarters, but as soon as we return to the school, you will submit yourself for testing. If not for yourself, than for Anna…" He halted midsentence and frowned at me. "Wait…You were surprised that I was talking about her powers? What did you think I was referring to?" I stood and slapped his arm.

"Finish the bottle for me, will you, Hank?" I waved over my shoulder as I walked away from him towards the sliding doors.

"Logan, what did you two…? Oh, my stars and garters…!" His face was priceless.

The cool, recycled air of the still hallway made my skin prickle. I inhaled, searching for her scent. My stomach lurched. I had to deal with this, deal with her. I had been a coward for not having the conversation with her already. McCoy had been right, what we had done would have consequences not just for us, but for the entire team. Before she made her choice, she needed to know how I felt. I tracked her smell down the cold metal passage.


	20. Chapter 20

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

Author's note: Flag on this chapter for one last round of extremely mature content. We're nearing the end, thanks for reading!

**Sam**

"Sure not much of a party, girl." I sighed noisily and set my plate of steaming food on the sprawling table across from where Rachel dejectedly picked at her own meal. She looked up and scowled up at me as I dropped into my chair.

"What did you expect?" It was just her and me, and yeah, not gonna lie, I had been expecting more. Not a huge pat on the back or anything, but I thought we all deserved a little celebratory moment. We had found our friends and saved the day. Nine months of guilt and worry and angst and we had beaten the odds, we were bringing them home. I was itching to wrap each of them in a big embarrassing hug whether they wanted one or not, and had been looking forward to just doing something simple, like hanging out together as a family. Lila and most of the small crew were sleeping, Hank was in sick bay, so of our group that left Anna, Logan and Remy unaccounted for. I wanted to ask her where Korvus ran off to, but her scowl told me to leave that one alone for the moment.

"Rogue on her way up?" I asked and tucked in with less enthusiasm than I normally mustered towards a hot plate of food after days of rations.

"She's busy," Rachel said tartly. I paused mid-chew. What had gotten stuck in her craw?

"What about Logan? I haven't seen him since we got back on board. Can you give him a telepathic whistle?" She exhaled in an annoyed hiss.

"No. I can't. My injuries left me with a nasty headache, so Hank gave me a dose of neural inhibitors. They block my telepathic powers so I can't 'hear' anything."

"Like you're wearing a big pair of noise cancelling headphones?" She rolled her eyes, but smiled just a little bit. I would pull her out of her bad mood if it killed me. "What else did the Doc say?" She chewed thoughtfully and swallowed.

"Not much, truthfully. Korvus had it pretty much handled before Hank got to me. I have a slight concussion and some bumps and bruises. Nothing major. Hank gave me the neural inhibitor to help me 'relax'," she raised her hands and made air quotes on that last word, but frowned again. "Then, he got really weird. He was working on testing some blood sample of Rogue's while he was talking to Korvus and me, but when the computer brought up the result, I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. He must have saw something he didn't like, I guess. He started mumbling to himself, and then he kicked us out of the room." I looked at her, slightly alarmed.

"What do you mean something he didn't like? Is there something wrong with Anna?" She looked at me dismissively.

"He obviously didn't tell me, Sam, and the effect of the medicine he gave me was blissfully instantaneous, so I couldn't read his mind, either. So, I don't know, and, really, right now? I don't care." I stood irately and leaned over the table to catch her glare.

"What the hell, Rachel? What do you mean you don't care?" She crossed her arms and stared at me, but I returned her look with an unexpected fury. There was no way I was letting her piss on my parade, not without a mighty good reason. She flicked her gaze towards the star covered windows of the dining room.

"I went to find her…" her voice thickened. "…and she was…rolling around on the shower floor with Remy." She was embarrassed, and I guessed I kind of understood that feeling. I knew Rachel still hadn't forgiven Remy for his relationship with Ororo and was still really angry at him, but she cared for Anna and her happiness. It was a tough spot for all of us to be in; it was like watchin' a train wreck in slow motion. You knew what was gonna happen, but couldn't do a damned thing about it.

"Damn, that had to be awkward. Nobody wants to walk in on that…" I grimaced. Better her than me, that was for sure, but part of me was mighty disappointed that Remy hadn't fessed up to Anna before he tried to get into her pants. Rachel's face was pinched, her eyes suddenly gleaming with angry tears. I came around the table and knelt next to her chair. "Don't be too angry with them, Rachel. They're going through things we can only imagine. This is something they've got to work out between the two of them." Rachel shook her head.

"Don't you get it? She's just as bad as Gambit. How could she do this to Logan?" she whispered. I tipped my head at her, sure I hadn't heard her right.

"Logan?" I asked, really damned confused. "I know he's probably gonna be pissed about Gambit fooling around with Ororo when we get home, but why should he care what Remy and Anna are doin' in the shower?" She snorted and gave me a withering look.

"Think about it, Sam. Anna and Logan have been together all this time, all alone, just the two of them…" She raised a hand and gave me an expectant look. "Even you can't be this oblivious, Guthrie." I pulled myself up and sat in the chair next to her, replaying the last couple days in my head. Logan's reaction to Rachel's mind link, his absolute fierceness to find Anna, her claws, her flinging herself into battle and into his arms…

"Sweet Jesus!" You could have knocked me over with a feather. Rachel nodded as comprehension made me blink rapidly. "No!"

"Yeah."

"So they were…" I couldn't say it out loud, it was too weird. "…while on Earth, Remy and Ororo were…" I lifted my eyebrows. I didn't know if I owed Gambit an apology or a punch in the face. Probably one of each.

"Yeah." She turned to me and grabbed my arm. "Its Anna I'm angry with right now, Sam. I know that it isn't fair to single her out in this mess they've all made for themselves, but, fair or not, this is how I feel. I know I should be happy we found her, happy that my friend is alive, but I am really pissed off at her. I expected better of her. I believed, stupidly, apparently, in her true love, in her happy ending. I had chosen my side, I was team Anna all the way. I defended her and vilified Remy and Ororo, called them all sorts of nasty names to their faces, when all the while she and Logan were doing the same damn thing. I don't know how to feel here, Sam, I really don't. I don't know if I'm even allowed to feel anything, because as Korvus so thoughtfully pointed out," she angrily stabbed her fork into her food. "It's ultimately none of my concern." Her eyes pleaded with mine for understanding. "But it gets so much worse, Sam, so much worse. I saw in Logan's mind how much her cares for Anna. He loves her, like, _really_ loves her." My stomach bottomed out. "He loves her, and she's down the hall half-naked, humping that Cajun bastard in the shower…" A growl thundered behind us and we jumped. Logan stepped into the dining hall's entryway, and I had a new face to add to my nightmares of the man. "Logan, I…" Rachel stammered, but he browbeat her with one stare. She shrank so far into her seat I thought she was gonna slide under the table. Without a word, he spun around and stalked back off down the corridor. Rachel and I exchanged identical mortified faces.

"Speaking of awkward…" I mumbled uncomfortably, my body shaking like a leaf on the breeze.

"Yeah. Thank you neural inhibitors. I didn't need to 'hear' the inside voice of that growl." She bit her lip. "I feel like such an ass. Korvus was right; this is none of my business. They're my friends, but I need to just stay out of it." Her green eyes went wide. "You don't think he'll hurt anybody, do you?"

"No." I shook my head firmly. "Of course not." He had definitely gotten an earful of our conversation, but the man I knew wouldn't attack a teammate over marginally bitter gossip. "Right?" I asked, uncertainty creeping its way into my voice. The man I knew also wouldn't get himself tangled in _another_ twisted love triangle involving his teammates, I was sure once had been enough even for his long life. Was it still called a love triangle when four people were involved? Was it a love square? I shook my head and stood, suddenly tired of all of it, my appetite and good mood spoiled. "I think that they're all adults. Your honey's right, we need to stay out of their business." I waved and walked to the doorway. "I'm hitting the hay, Rachel. I suggest you do the same."

I listened for arguing or the sounds of a fight on my way back to the room I was sharing with Lila, but all was eerily quiet. Korvus and the rest of the crew, except for Jat, the engineer taking the night shift on the bridge, had bid us a regretful goodnight a couple hours ago and returned to their quarters. I knew that the band of misfits Rogue had sandwiched together to form a crew had woken up shortly after our arrival and had wanted to make a night of it, but between our laundry list of injuries and the long drawn out medical examinations, they had all lost steam. I was real appreciative to them for all they had done for us, we would have to find some way to repay their surprising kindness.

The door to me and Lila's room swished open softly, and I saw her beautiful body bathed in the light from the corridor. I quickly stepped inside and quietly washed my face and brushed my teeth, then slipped under the sheets behind her. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight.

"Mmmm…Guthrie…." She mumbled sleepily and snuggled her backside against me. I kissed her neck and let her presence calm me down. She was struggling to wake up. "Time to go home?" She whispered. I kissed her smooth cheek.

"Not yet. You go on and sleep some more, baby. You'll get us all home tomorrow." Home. But Earth wasn't really home for her, was it? Not anymore. Tears burned my eyes, and I bit my lip hard to keep from sobbing. For so many months, I had been so damned focused on finding our friends that the thought hadn't occurred to me that once they were home safe, once they were back on Earth, it was all over. Lila would leave again and go back to her life, without me. She stirred and turned in my arms, her sleepy eyes finding mine in the dim light of the room's windows to space. She touched my cheek with her warm fingers.

"What's wrong, Sam?" she whispered. I manned up and swallowed my tears, but my voice quaked when I opened my mouth.

"When we get back to Earth, you're leaving aren't you?" She took a deep, shaky breath. Maybe the thought hadn't occurred to her, either.

"I suppose so. I have a tour to get back to, as long as Doctor McCoy gives me a clean bill of health." I nodded silently. It was selfish of me to expect anything different. I should have known better than to let myself get this close to her again. "Sam," she asked gently, "what if I asked you to come with me?" I inched closer and found her lips with mine.

"What if I asked you to stay?" We twined our bodies together, clinging to each other frantically until the false dawn.

**Rogue**

I was a coward for not finding Logan the second he walked away from me. The velvety blanket of space spread in front of my eyes, and I hugged myself, shivering in the thin silk robe my former nemesis turned ally and current Korvus crew member Glitter had grudgingly lent me. The observation deck of Korvus's newly acquired ship was dim, lit only by the spiraling galaxies winking through the crystal clear dome. I should have probably taken time to talk to the crew, to ask what had happened to them since they left us on Earth, after all I had been their captain for about five whole minutes and their enemy before that, but I just couldn't deal with making small talk right then. I sighed, and my breathing echoed back at me, the only noise in the quiet, secluded room.

I wasn't sure things were entirely settled with Remy. He deserved the chance to be happy with Ororo, if that was what he wanted, but I had forgotten the effect he still had on me. Even when I didn't want him to, he could still sweep me off my feet with one look. I stepped forward and placed my hand on the observation dome's heavily shielded opening. How had things gotten so complicated? I should have been happy we were rescued, euphoric to be heading home. I had a warm bed to sleep in tonight, had a hot shower, all these things I had dreamed about for months, but I felt absolutely out of control. Numb, in shock, I traced the shape of imagined constellations with my fingers against the cold glass. The last few months had been so difficult, we were so frantic every day…was that all it had been? He hadn't even come looking for me to see if I was okay. Had we been just two desperate people reaching out for each other?

I smelled him come into the room, heard the weight on his familiar footsteps. I quickly wiped the tears that had formed in my eyes. His enhanced senses lingered in my system, and Hank thought they always would. I hadn't wrapped my head around that reality yet, but in a way it was kind of comforting to know he'd always be a part of me, even if we weren't…I felt his warmth as he came to stand behind me.

"Couldn't sleep." His whisper rumbled huskily in the quiet. I shivered, or trembled, at the sound of his voice, couldn't tell which. Suddenly, I was very conscious of my nudity beneath the scant garment I wore. He grunted and ran his palm down the liquid thin material covering my arms. "You're too cold." I started shaking, and bit my lip hard to get myself under control. "Hey…" he whispered, alarmed, "…don't…" He wrapped his arms around me and I let him pull me back into his warm, solid chest. We stayed silent for a few seconds, sensing each other's heartbeats. He rested his chin on my shoulder, and I felt him smile. "Guess we should have talked about it, huh?" I leaned my head back and laughed a laugh that was thick with phlegm.

"Didn't think you were much for talking," He squeezed the breath out of me.

"We have nothin' to feel guilty about, darlin', you know that, right? I don't regret a thing, and neither should you." Regret. Like it was all over for him. My stomach tied itself into knots and I tried to pull away from his grasp but he held me tighter. "I'm not worried about what they think, Rogue. They'll understand." Rogue again, not Anna. "LeBeau'll take you back, forgive you. You two can pick right up where you left off, if that's what you want." His voice was low, but his scent was thick with sadness and longing. I lifted a trembling hand to touch his cheek, and turned my face towards his.

"And what if that's not what I want?" He let out a shaky breath, and his mouth moved towards mine as my curves melted back into him. His breath rasped against my lips.

"What _do_ you want, Anna?" I tried to show him by pushing my hips into his growing hardness, but he stilled me with his rough hands. "Say it, darlin'," he hissed. "I need to hear you say it."

"You, Logan. I want you. I want us." He growled and crushed my lips with his; wrapping an arm around my waist he drew me forcefully back. The other hand roamed to my chest and kneaded my breasts beneath the silk. I arched my back and rubbed against him shamelessly. The ship was silent except for our soft moans. Anybody could walk in on us, but in that moment I didn't care. I needed him, I wanted him, and the heat between us wouldn't be denied. His mouth bit its way down my throat, and his hand slithered down my fluttering stomach to find the opening of my robe. I choked back a low whimper as he slid a finger inside of me, sending a hot flood of desire through my body. His mouth moved to my ear.

"This can't be over between us," he choked. "Please don't say it is." I answered him by pulling the fabric up over my hips. His breath came in heavy shaking gulps; he pulled his hands from me and undid the drawstring of his pants. I braced myself on the cold glass in front of us and he groaned and shoved into me from behind, filling me utterly. No low, slow, hungry build this time, it was hot and fast and hard, a frantic passion gripping us both as we reared against each other. He dug his fingers painfully into my hips and his hands and mouth moved over my body possessively, reclaiming me. I bent lower, rocking my hips to meet his every frenzied stroke. I was close and he knew it, knew how to make my body sing. He thrust into me madly and it sent me over the edge in a crushing, pulsing wave that pulled him along in its wake. We stayed still when it was over, afraid to move, both of us shaking and sweating. He finally pulled out of me, and I felt our mingled warmth run down the inside of my thigh. Straightening us, he turned me to face him. He swallowed hard, and in the dim light I watched his eyes move up and down my body, hungrily following the opening of the robe that hung loosely on my shoulders. He tenderly touched my cheek.

"You're under no obligation to me, darlin'." He whispered sadly. "I know part of your heart will always belong to him, but I want you to know where I stand, how I feel…" His other hand rested on my cheek and tipped my face toward him. "I love you, Anna."

"Oh?" I asked quietly and smiled teasingly at him. He laughed throatily.

"Only took gettin' stranded alone together on a rock halfway across the flamin' galaxy..." He moved his hands to grip me around my hips beneath the robe and drew me against his chest. His eyes radiated an uncharacteristic uncertainty. I debated torturing him a little as payback for the grief he had caused me since our rescue, but he had said it first when I couldn't. He deserved all that I had to give him and more.

"I love you, too, Logan. I don't want anyone else but you, and this thing between us, it's real and it's true. I love you, and not just because I was scared, or lonely, or homesick. I love you for your fire and passion and strength, and I'm not ashamed of us or what's happened." He kissed me fiercely.

"Come to bed," he whispered against my mouth.

"Not tired, sugar," I teased.

"Neither am I."


	21. Chapter 21

All characters owned by Marvel Comics

Author's note: The end, and Logan gets the epilogue. Thanks again for reading, I hope it was worth your while!

**Logan**

Dawn broke on the horizon. The morning was cool, the slight fog clinging to the surface of Breakstone Lake and obscuring the bottom of the old dock would burn away with the early morning sun. Chuck's original family home had been destroyed and rebuilt over and over, but the dock and the old boathouse had managed to come out of the last scrap intact. We had been back for a few months now, and I had been working slowly to fix the boathouse up to make it livable again. Don't get me wrong, I was freaking thrilled to be home, but sometimes the school and all the kids were a bit much to handle. The need for a little privacy, especially after so long away from people, had hit me real hard. I watched in silent appreciation the start of another day, a day on Earth. I had a lot to be thankful for.

I stubbed out my cigar on the rough wood pylon and turned back towards the shore, my boots heavy on the aging thick planks. A slight breeze stirred, wafting a familiar scent towards me. I stopped and turned, watching Ororo drop silently from the clear sky. I smiled.

"Mornin', darlin'," I said warmly. She smiled brightly, the light in her eyes matching the radiance peeking over the horizon.

"You are up early, Logan. Or have you not yet gone to bed?" She was so beautiful it still broke my heart. I knew everyone had been waiting for some big showdown between the two of us, but, even after everything, we had too much respect for each other. Sure, we had danced around what we had done, how we had ultimately ended things, but our friendship, old and strong as this dock, had won out. Some things, some connections, ran deeper than hurt feelings.

"Nah, just something I started since we got back. I get up and watch the sunrise, then get my day going." She nodded, looking pleasantly surprised.

"Getting a bit sentimental in your old age, my friend?" I snorted and began walking again.

"Yeah. Maybe. The last year sure put things into perspective. Y'know, you prioritize your life differently after going through something like that."

"I can imagine." She walked with me in measured steps, her white hair trailing behind us. "Your absence and return certainly affected everyone, changing things in ways I had not foreseen." We were still avoiding the elephant in the room, but we'd get there eventually. She had already been nicer to me than I probably deserved, and it had definitely helped settle other people's hurt feelings, whether it was their flamin' business or not. I guessed it was hard for her to stay angry at me when we had gone tit for tat in the betrayal department. I tried not to be sore at her for not coming to rescue me. Part of me wished she had come tearing across the universe to find me, to fight for me, but she had too many things to worry about, and I knew the effect so much time away from Earth had on her powers. Sometimes you just had to laugh at how things worked out, in this case for the better, and move on. We reached the end of the dock and I edged towards the boathouse. "Logan..." She called softly to me and I turned. "Do not forget, my friend, Robert has called a staff meeting. Seven a.m. Sharp." I scowled and she arched her perfect white eyebrows over her blue cat eyes.

Change number one, right there. Headmaster of the Jean Grey School was now Mr. Robert Drake. He had apparently taken on the bulk of running the school while everybody had been scrambling to find us, and he was surprisingly good at it. Maybe acting like he was still in high school gave him an edge dealing with surly teenagers. Rachel had been working hard as his second in command since we got back. I was glad for him, for them. They both seemed well-suited for their positions, and I was happy as hell for the opportunity to step back. I had enough responsibilities, even with taking time off from the Avengers.

"Please be on time. Do not irritate him further…" I nodded, and with assurances of my punctuality, she waved goodbye. I wanted to stop her and ask her about LeBeau. Change number two. I didn't talk to the Cajun much these days, and that was fine with both of us. It was just too weird. He and Ororo were still together, still happy, but somewhere along the way LeBeau had wound up running the Thieves' Guild in New Orleans. I didn't complain too loudly, mainly because the guild had apparently helped out big time in getting Guthrie and Lila patched up enough to rescue us. Ororo, with her background, naturally got sucked into the guild business. Good guys or criminal syndicate, the two of them were now blissfully spanning the hazy line between our worlds. She had been pretty tight-lipped about everything so far, but I would get it out of her soon enough. I hoped they could keep things separated and that I wouldn't have to make it an issue.

Change number three, Guthrie and Lila Cheney. The two of them took off together soon after our return, on her intergalactic comeback tour. Her powers had leveled out, didn't tire her so much anymore to teleport. Guthrie surprised me. Kid had balls after all, I would give him that. He had called Captain America and given his resignation the second we touched solid earth. Said he realized he didn't want to live without Cheney anymore. I could relate and had wished them luck. He knew he was always welcome, always would have a home here. Cheney, too.

I softly pushed open the front door of the boathouse and slid off my new leather jacket and laid it over the back of an even newer recliner. I kicked my boots off and looked around the room in the slowly growing light. As I stepped deeper into the house, I mentally catalogued the things I still wanted to do before I ran out of time. It wasn't much, patching a couple spots, a wall or two to paint, some furniture I needed to put together, but I was really…happy with what I had accomplished. I smiled and headed for the bedroom. Place was really starting to look like home.

Change number four was currently sprawled across the king-sized bed in a tangle of hair and sheets. I leaned over and brushed a spill of white tendrils from Anna's forehead and kissed her warm cheek. I placed my hand on the swell of her belly where our baby, change number five, was just beginning to show. There hadn't been anything wrong with her to fix, but Hank said my powers, which she still had a portion of, had somehow straightened out her uneven cycles without us realizing it. I hadn't known I even wanted it, but our baby was the best damn souvenir I could have ever asked for.

"Mornin', Logan," she mumbled, and I bent lower and brushed her lips with mine. She pouted sleepily when I pulled back and reached up for me, drawing me down onto the bed. "You can do better than that…" she teased softly and started unbuttoning my shirt.

"Staff meeting in half an hour…" I griped, but gave in when she slid her silky nightgown up and over her head. She was so damn stubborn and I loved every minute of it.

"We've got plenty of time, sugar."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

**The end**


End file.
